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EU chief Ursula von der Leyen faces a grilling from lawmakers Monday ahead of a confidence vote she expected to survive—but which casts renewed scrutiny on her leadership.

The rare challenge pushed by a far-right faction has virtually no chance of unseating the conservative European Commission president when a vote is held Thursday in Strasbourg.

But Monday’s debate, starting at 5:00pm local time will give von der Leyen’s opponents  a chance to flex their muscle, one year after EU-wide elections.

The confidence vote was initiated by a Romanian far-right lawmaker, Gheorghe Piperea, who accuses von der Leyen of a lack of transparency over text messages she sent to the head of the Pfizer pharmaceutical giant when negotiating Covid vaccines.

The commission’s failure to release the messages—the focus of multiple court cases—has given weight to critics who accuse its boss of centralised and opaque decision-making.

That is also a growing refrain from the commission chief’s traditional allies on the left and centre, who also have bones to pick over the status quo in parliament—where her centre-right camp has increasingly teamed up with the far-right to further its agenda.

Von der Leyen, 66, ‘will share her views’ with lawmakers during the sitting, commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker told reporters.

Most members of her executive team of commissioners were expected to attend in a show of support for their chief.

But De Keersmaecker downplayed the significance of the move saying it was normal for commissioners to participate in plenary sessions.

‘Pfizergate’ aside, Romania’s Piperea also accuses the commission of interfering in his country’s recent presidential election, which saw pro-European Nicusor Dan beat EU critic and nationalist George Simion.

The vote came after Romania’s constitutional court scrapped an initial ballot over allegations of Russian interference and massive social media promotion of the far-right frontrunner, who was barred from standing again.

The EU opened a formal probe into TikTok after the cancelled vote.

Piperea’s challenge has support from part of the far-right—including the Patriots for Europe group that includes France’s National Rally and the party of Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The vote was set last week after the motion gathered the minimum 72 signatures—one-tenth of the 720-seat legislature, where von der Leyen was re-elected with 401 votes last July.

Parliament’s biggest force, von der Leyen’s European People’s Party flatly rejects the challenge to the commission chief. Group leader Manfred Weber has branded it the work of pro-Russian, anti-European forces in the assembly.

Russian President Vladimir ‘Putin’s puppets in the European Parliament are trying to undermine Europe’s unity and bring the commission down in times of global turmoil and economic crisis,’ he charged.

‘It’s a disgrace for the European people.’

On the left and centre, there is no question of backing the censure motion.

But both camps want von der Leyen to clarify her allegiances—accusing her of cosying up to the far-right to push through contested measures—most notably to roll back environmental rules.

‘We are going to ask the EPP, clearly, who it wants to work with,’ said the centrist leader Valerie Hayer.

‘Is it still with us, the pro-European groups—or with the ECR and Patriots who are trying to bring down the EPP commission chief—and with it a vision of Europe that we believe in?’

The Socialists and Democrats—parliament’s second force—likewise said they had sought ‘clear signs of commitment’ on the EPP’s priorities.

‘The EPP should look carefully who they want to build bridges with, us or the ones who initiate votes of censure,’ the group said.

A successful no-confidence vote would trigger the resignation of von der Leyen’s 27-member commission in what would be a historical first.

The closest parallel dates from March 1999, when the team led by Luxembourg’s Jacques Santer resigned over damning claims of corruption and mismanagement rather than face a confidence vote it was set to lose.