Controversy surrounding the vice-chair position in the European Parliament: Christel Schaldemose accused of hypocrisy
The long-time member of the European Parliament for the Social Democrats, Christel Schaldemose, has had a tumultuous start as one of the 14 newly elected vice-chairs in the parliament. A sharp criticism has been directed at her by Anders Vistisen from the Danish People’s Party, accusing her of hypocrisy in connection with her new position.
Vistisen claims that Schaldemose only secured the vice-chair position by collaborating with other groups in the parliament to exclude the EU group, Patriots of Europe, which the Danish People’s Party is a part of. He points out that Patriots of Europe, based on their mandates, should have had the right to two vice-chair positions. But due to their exclusion from the other groups, they did not receive any.
Instead, these two positions have gone to Schaldemose’s group, S&D, which has secured five vice-chair positions instead of the three they would have received based on their mandates. Vistisen believes that Schaldemose has contradicted her statements during the election campaign, where she repeatedly said that she would not contribute to excluding the right-wing.
“As soon as she has the opportunity to test it, she then takes the fourth of the five vice-chair positions that the Social Democratic group takes over in connection with the election,” says Anders Vistisen, adding: “She benefits personally by breaking with what she said many times during the election campaign. I find that deeply hypocritical and very problematic.”
However, Christel Schaldemose flatly denies the criticism and calls it “completely absurd.” In a written response, she explains that the election of vice-chairs was done democratically, where all members of the European Parliament could freely choose who they wanted as vice-chair.
“For the election of vice-chairs in the European Parliament, all members of the European Parliament received a ballot, where they could freely choose who they wanted as vice-chair. It doesn’t get more democratic than that. And that’s how our rules for the election of vice-chairs say it should happen,” writes Schaldemose.
She emphasizes that the reason Patriots of Europe did not receive any vice-chair positions is that the group failed to gather a majority behind them. “Everyone knows that in order to implement their policy, they need to ensure they have a majority. When the far right struggles to pass legislation or lacks top positions, it’s about their policy. There simply isn’t a majority for it,” she adds.
The 14 vice-chairs in the European Parliament are elected through a direct vote among the parliament’s members, where an absolute majority is required to be elected. The S&D group, to which Christel Schaldemose belongs, has 136 mandates, while Patriots of Europe has 84 mandates.