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The European Parliament, which has fought for years to become the European Union’s power center, capitulated on Tuesday (2 July) and accepted a political compromise between national leaders over the distribution of the EU’s top posts. Ta.
Manfred Weber, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP)’s leading candidate for EU Commission president, withdrew his candidacy late Tuesday, making way for German Minister Ursula von der Leyen. This ended the parliamentary fight for more power. post.
He also withdrew from the European Parliament presidential election, but said he would continue to lead the political group EPP in Strasbourg.
With the EPP remaining the largest party in May’s European elections, Mr Weber was in pole position to confirm the EU Commission’s top post, but his nomination has been subject to several calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and others over the past three days. It was met with fierce resistance.
“The EPP fought for a more democratic Europe and it is sad for us to see how the European Council managed the process in this regard,” Weber told a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday night. day,” he said.
He added that the EPP is a responsible party and its members therefore welcome the outcome of the leaders’ final compromise on how to distribute the EU’s top positions.
“I am a party member and an EPP politician and that is also why I am loyal to this policy,” Weber said.
He pointed out that, reflecting the results of the European elections, the EPP will remain in the hands of Ms. von der Leyen of the German CDU, who will retain her chairpersonship.
Weber said the EPP would support the candidate that the Social Democratic Party (S&D) could currently field for the European Parliament presidency.
Late Tuesday night, in a secret ballot, S&D nominated little-known Italian lawmaker David Sassoli.
The Renew Europe liberal group also accepted the package agreed between national EU leaders.
One lawmaker explained, “We’ve got Charles Michel as president, and Mr. Bestegger will become vice-president of the EU Commission. We can’t expect anything more.” The group does not intend to field a candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament.
The Social Democratic Party, which hopes candidate Frans Timmermans will become the next commission president, appears to be dissatisfied with the outcome of talks between EU leaders.
Instead, the group simply named Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as head of EU foreign policy, but the deal could be made even more favorable by him becoming president of the European Parliament for the next two-and-a-half years.
Labor MP Richard Corbett said: “If we abandon the Spitzenkandidat process now, we will never get it back.”
Previously touted as a candidate for the post would have been Sergei Stanishev, leader of the European Socialist Party and member of the Bulgarian parliament, who would have taken power in another way by including Eastern Europeans in the final composition. It will complete the puzzle.
However, some Social Democrats and other members of the European Parliament were concerned about Stanishev’s past as a senior Communist Party official and member.
The election for the President of the European Parliament will be held in a secret (paper) vote on Wednesday morning (July 3). A candidate must receive an absolute majority of votes (50% plus one) to be elected to her next two-and-a-half year term.
Social Democratic candidate Ska Keller of the Green Party, as well as National Conservative MP Jan Zahradir and Spain’s far-left party Cira Rego, confirmed their candidacy on Tuesday night.
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