EU's von der Leyen confronts fresh no confidence challenges

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will face bids to remove her for the second time in three months when hard-right and left groups in the European Parliament present no-confidence motions this week.

Although the motions of censure have almost no chance of reaching the two-thirds majority of votes required to unseat von der Leyen, they could expose more general disquiet over her leadership and destabilise the EU assembly, whose backing is required to pass legislation.

The motions are set to be proposed on Monday by France's far right and hard left - Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, and Manon Aubry of France Unbowed - followed by von der Leyen's defence, and spots for leaders of all party groups.

The votes take place on Thursday. For von der Leyen this is not a new experience. She also faced a no-confidence motion in July from mainly far-right lawmakers, which she comfortably survived.

However, parties outside the mainstream have realised that triggering previously seldom-used censure motions is easy to achieve after the 2024 elections swelled the far right to more than 100 lawmakers, with only 72 required to back one.

In the case of the left, it has also co-opted one lawmaker from the centre-right Socialist and Democrats group and several Greens.

The two censure motions differ, the right's complaining about "misguided" green policies and a failure to address illegal migration, while the left's highlights the EU's inaction over Gaza. However, both sides agree that von der Leyen accepted an unbalanced tariff deal with the United States and that the Commission's proposed EU-Mercosur trade deal is a threat to farmers and the environment.

Both will be put to votes in the parliament in the coming months, with the outcomes unclear.