Socialists have reported it is imperative to ensure the safe passage of their group of commissioners, especially Spain’s choice, Teresa Ribera, who will be in charge of climate and competition policy.

This makes it less likely to fight with the centre-right EPP, which has claimed most of the commissioners and which takes into account the fact that Ursula von der Leyen, who decided the shape and responsibilities of the team, comes from also, of their own lines.

But history suggests that the entire slate of commissioner nominees won’t emerge unscathed on Nov. 12, even if it involves just reshuffling the commissioner’s responsibilities or job title rather than an outright rejection. In the same process five years ago, the European Parliament rejected an unprecedented three commissioners, and at least one potential commissioner has been rejected each time since 2004.

The political fireworks, if they happen, could go off over Italy’s commissioner-designate Raffaele Fitto, who was nominated by right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, or Hungary’s Olivér Varhélyi, chosen by Viktor Orbán for a second term in Brussels.

Even though Meloni’s European conservatives and reformists he didn’t back down von der Leyen this summer, her political family in Parliament received one of the most powerful positions in the EU executive power structure.

Fitto is supported by the fact that three of the four largest political groups in Parliament are on the centre-right or far right of the political spectrum. For some, this makes the hearing a litmus test of how far the new Parliament has come swung to the right. His appointment could signal the end of the informal coalition that elected von der Leyen, which included the Socialists and the Greens.