The Party of European Socialists (PES) were the most vocal critics of Barroso and his proposed Commission, while the European People's Party (EPP) backed the commission with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) split. Barroso attempted to offer small concessions to Parliament but they were not accepted as the PES made clear they would vote down the commission as it stood, leaving the divided ALDE holding the balance of whether the Barroso Commission would be the first Commission in EU history to rejected by Parliament. The EPP demanded that if Buttiglione were to go, then a PES commissioner must also be sacrificed for balance.
