The center holds” - this is what Ursula von der Leyen announced on the evening of June 9 after the first projections of the European election results from the 27 European member states came in. She was proved right - the center has held: Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected Commission President on July 18 with a comfortable majority of 401 votes, presumably made up of votes from the pro-European centrist groups, i.e. the European People's Party (EPP), the Social Democrats (S&D), the Liberals and also the Greens, in a secret ballot. Her “declaration” - a kind of candidacy speech to the plenary of the European Parliament - was based on political guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029, which had been published shortly before her speech