Spaniard Iratxe García, who leads the group, has so far kept Spanish lawmakers in line. She faces a leadership vote on October 21, but is widely expected to keep her position.
If Sánchez lost his election, all of the S&D’s largest national delegations – from Italy, Romania and France – would be in opposition in their countries. The only S&D parties still in government would be junior partners in Germany and Austria, alongside the Danish Social Democrats, whose hardline stance on immigration limits their influence within the group.
Without a strong prime minister from a major EU country to keep the S&D on course, von der Leyen would come under greater pressure to make more concessions to lawmakers already frustrated by the center-right’s votes with the far right.
“If von der Leyen continues to respect S&D priorities, she will have the support of the group, and if she does not, she will lose the support of the group,” Repasi said. A formal alliance between Spain’s EPP and the far-right Vox party, he added, “will push us further apart.”
The S&D would also have less “incentive” to compromise without Sánchez’s presence, the second MP said, because the group would have less responsibility for maintaining the stability of European institutions.
“The institutional responsibility to guarantee support for the Commission and the stability of the European institutions will no longer exist,” the lawmaker said. A harder line would be easier for the center-left “if the EPP continues to make deals with the far right and the European Commission fails to come up with a politically attractive program that progressives can sell to their voters.”
Gn world
