That's how multi-party parliamentarism usually works. A minority is not allowed to choose the leader just because they are a slightly larger minority than the others.

Because no party has an outright majority, there are weeks of negotiations after the elections, as the parties try to find a compromise acceptable to a majority. Once a deal has been reached, the parliament votes to confirm it. If the vote fails, the parties return to negotiations.

Von der Leyen was chosen to head the Commission, because she was an acceptable compromise. All lead candidates had been tried before her, but all of them failed to obtain majority support in the negotiations.

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logifail 4 hours ago | parent [-]

All the European Council's negotiations were private.

No public hearings, no public votes, not even any public parliamentary debates(!) about different candidates for the Commission. This is indeed "the EU way", trying to find compromise via party-family bargaining ... in private.

> All lead candidates had been tried before her, but all of them failed to obtain majority support in the negotiations.

The Parliament didn't actually get to vote on any of the other candidates, did they?

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jltsiren 4 hours ago | parent [-]

All real negotiations are private. When politicians debate or negotiate in public, they inevitably start talking past each other to the general public.

Voting rituals would be a waste of time. The confirmation vote is not just about the President of the Commission but the entire package, including other major positions in the Commission and major policy directions. If no party has a majority, no candidate can hope to get majority support before the whole package has been agreed on.

	▲	coldtea 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		All of those should be voted directly by the people.
	▲	psychoslave 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		On the other hand people don’t all want for negotiations to happen in private: https://european-republic.eu/en/