Cypriot members of the European parliament were evenly split on both occasions as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen survived two no-confidence votes in Strasbourg on Thursday.

The first motion was put forward by MEPs from the far-right Patriots for Europe group, and won the support of 179 MEPs, but was handily voted down by 378 who offered their support for von der Leyen – well short of the two-thirds parliamentary majority which would have been required to unseat her.

Of the Cypriots, Elam’s Geadis Geadi and independent Fidias Panayiotou voted in favour, while Loucas Fourlas and Michalis Hadjipantela, both of Disy voted against, and both Akel’s Giorgos Georgiou and Diko’s Costas Mavrides did not vote.

The second motion was put forward by MEPs from The Left, the European grouping of which Akel is a member, and as such, Georgiou was one of its sponsors.

He voted in its favour and was joined by Fidias Panayiotou in doing so, but Geadi, who had voted in favour of the first motion, chose to abstain from the second vote.

As with the first vote, Fourlas and Hadjipantela voted against the motion and Mavrides did not vote.

The second motion fared worse than the first overall, with only 133 MEPs voting in its favour and 383 voting against.

After the result was clear, von der Leyen said she “deeply appreciates the strong support received today”.

“The commission will keep working closely with the European parliament to tackle Europe’s challenges,” she said.

The vote came just three months after von der Leyen had survived a previous no-confidence motion, with the Cypriot MEPs at the time once again being evenly split.

Fourlas had said at the time that “now is not the time to destabilise Europe”.

“What would a no-confidence vote serve? We would be broken into even more pieces, at a time when Europe must stand united against [United States President Donald] Trump and China and find solutions to many serious issues,” he said.

Panayiotou, meanwhile, said that “I am not happy that Ursula von der Leyen is there because of the stuff with Pfizer, the vaccines, because of her politics in general”.

“I think the Americans don’t count on her in general either. She didn’t get along with Trump and she’s the leader of the European Union. With the sanctions on Russia, with the things we do in general … I’m not happy with the policy she’s outlined for the Green New Deal, that they want companies to develop so quickly for the green transition,” he said.