Ursula von der Leyen Seeks Alliance with Social Democrats and Liberals for Strong Europe

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will seek the support of social democrats and liberals in Brussels to form a majority following the European Parliament elections. She emphasized the importance of building a broad and effective majority for a stronger Europe, focusing on large political groups rather than national parties.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will turn to the social democrats and liberals in Brussels, with whom she has worked in the past, to form a majority following elections to the European Parliament, she said in Berlin on Monday. "Throughout my election campaign, I worked hard to build a broad and effective majority in favour of a strong Europe. For this reason, we will now approach the large political families who also worked well with us in the last mandate," von der Leyen said at a conference of Germany's conservative CDU party.

Asked whether she would consider approaching parties further to the right, for example in Italy, von der Leyen said the initial focus was on broader political groups and not national ones.