Vienna, 02/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - In Vienna on 2 May, Guy Verhofstadt, the Liberal candidate for the job of president of the European Commission, outlined the conditions of his group, ALDE, for forming a coalition at the European Parliament after the 25 May elections.
The European Liberals and Democrats group, ALDE, was meeting in Vienna for the big event of its election campaign. A thousand delegates and activists from national liberal parties heard their candidate, Guy Verhofstadt, talk about the options for a coalition at the European Parliament. An election rally was held on Friday evening after a meeting of the party's bureau.
Third in the opinion polls after Conservative Jean-Claude Juncker and Socialist Martin Schulz, Verhofstadt would most likely have to have a coalition if he were to become president of the European Commission. In the polls at the moment, ALDE would get 62 seats, compared with 213 for the EPP and 208 for the S&D, according to Vote Watch Europe on 30 April.
European Commissioner Olli Rehn, who has temporarily left his job as Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner in order to run in the European elections, will also be addressing candidates as another of the party's candidates for the big European jobs. He will be talking after a speech by Graham Watson MEP, the head of the ALDE Group at the EP. A Liberal campaign video will be broadcast for the first time in Vienna.
The party's bureau meeting has accepted the application by another Austrian party, Neos, headed by Matthias Strolz, to join ALDE. Neos hosted the Liberals' meeting in Vienna. (MD)