BRUSSELS –
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, began assembling a coalition to lead the bloc on Monday after the far-right gained ground in the European Parliament elections, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to take a swift national to call a vote.
Centrist parties won a majority of seats in the four-day elections, but the shift to the right could make it harder to pass new legislation to respond to security challenges, climate change or industrial competition from China and the US.
Von der Leyen, the German president of the European Union’s powerful executive body, emerged strengthened from elections in 27 countries that concluded on Sunday as her centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) won seats.
