Von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas bag EU top jobs

Via live-feed from Lisbon, former Prime Minister António Costa briefly appeared to say that he was “delighted” to be part of the “team” with Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas.

On Tuesday, six negotiators from the three main centrist political groups approved von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas for the roles. On Thursday, the other leaders supported those decisions.

Earlier in the week, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made clear to the other leaders she was angry about being left out of the negotiations, given that her political grouping in the European Parliament is now the third largest after June’s European election. On Thursday night she abstained from supporting a second term for von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas.

She later tweeted about her lack of support for the three proposed for the top roles: “I decided not to support it out of respect for the citizens and the indications that came from those citizens during the elections. We continue to work to finally give Italy the weight it deserves in Europe.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán voted against a second term for Ursula von der Leyen, abstained on the vote for Kaja Kallas as EU foreign policy chief and voted in favor of António Costa as European Council President, an EU diplomat said.

Von der Leyen now faces a knife-edge vote in the European Parliament, which even her own party allies admit will be more of a challenge to pull off. The vote could come as soon as July 18.

This story has been updated.