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| KKE MEP Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (left) and the new EU Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen. |
Germany's Ursula von der Leyen has been narrowly elected president of the EU Commission following a secret ballot among MEPs.
The former defence minister of Merkel's government will replace Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on 1 November. She secured the backing of more than half of the members of the European parliament on Tuesday evening.
"It is a big responsibility and my work starts now," von der Leyen said in her first speech immediately after the vote and added. "Let us work together constructively."
During his intervention in the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasburg on Tuesday the MEP of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos denounced the anti-people strategy of the EU, pointing out that "the election of the president of the Commission is the result of a tough "bazaar" within the context of the sharpening competitions in the EU due to the "low performance" of the european economy".
As 902 portal reports, the KKE MEP said that "regardless of the confrontations, whoever is elected president, the new Commission will continue in the basic strategy of the EU: Strengthening of the profitability of monopolies, restriction of people's freedoms, anti-communism, crackdown of workers' rights, of refugees and immigrants in all member-states, militarization, imperialist agression which strengthens dangerous plans and challenge of sovereign rights by Turkey's bourgeois class in the Aegean Sea and the Cypriot EEZ".
Lefteris Nikolaou also refered to the political and economic situation in Greece after the recent electoral victory of New Democracy (ND): "Following the election of New Democracy in the government, the Eurogroup discussed the course of Greek economy within the framework of the agreements with the SYRIZA government, on the background of the 4th evaluation and the Medium-Term Program 2020-23. The Commission and the Eurogroup identify a series of "budget gaps". They require a strict observance of the 3.5% of primary surplaces, of committments in the context of the post-memorandum enhanced surveillance. New heavy measures costing 4.5-6 billion euroe on the back of the Greek people"
"These decisions - said the KKE MEP - form the basis of the policy of ND government. They include generalization of auctions towards people's houses, increase of tax collection measures for the non-performing loans, new cuts in the pensions system, in allowances, privatizations and greater commercialization of Health-Welfare and Education. The working people in Greece and Europe must draw important conclusions, must organize and claim their modern rights in work, life, in the education of their children".
