In a letter to his opposite numbers at the European Parliament dated Monday 12 December, the President of the EPP group, Manfred Weber (Germany), called for support for an EPP candidate under the traditional agreement between the two major political groups of the Parliament (the one he chairs and the S&D), for the sake of the proper functioning of the legislative process and the fight against rising populism. This appeal does not seem to have had much effect on the current President of the S&D and candidate to take over the top job, Gianni Pittella (Italy).
"We as the EPP group want to oppose nationalist hate with the joint approach of the pro-Europeans", the EPP President wrote to the other political groups. He said that only a joint approach can stem the tide of populism, reiterating the fact that at the moment, Parliament is the only stable institution, compared to a Council which is deadlocked, he said. He went on to say that there would be plenty of time for a political battle when the European elections are held in 2019.
This line of argument is not shared by Pittella, who made this quite clear in a press conference on Tuesday 13 December, stating that his candidacy puts an end to the grand coalition. He argues that it is better to have a genuine and clear polarisation between the two political forces, between the progressives and conservatives. In his view, political dialectics is the only way to breathe new life into parliamentary politics and thereby effectively to fight populist and xenophobic forces. In response to journalists asking about his role in the Council of Presidents, Pittella stressed that as far as he is concerned, it has never been a coalition, but legislative cooperation, with the EPP in particular.
The S&D President is well aware that his speech breaking with the traditional bipartisan agreement will make difficult hearing for some of the smaller political groups, such as the GUE/NGL and the Greens. The Green co-president, Philippe Lamberts (Belgium), told a group of journalists that in his experience, no current President of the S&D has ever once challenged the grand coalition within the Conference of the Presidents. "Not even to add an amendment to the agenda of the EP", he added. He said that the candidate who will win the backing of the Greens must, as far as possible, meet four criteria: - represent and defend the European Parliament against the European Commission and the Council; - not manipulate the internal regulation for the benefit of political interests; - respect the smaller political groups; - be a woman. All of these criteria would constitute the opposite of the mandate of the current President Martin Schulz, Lamberts told EUROPE.
Situation of the runners in the race. All of the groups are ready for battle pending the decision of the EPP, which will elect its candidate by a secret vote on the evening of Tuesday 13 December. There are four candidates in contention: Alain Lamassoure of France, Ireland's Mairead McGuinness, Antonio Tajani of Italy and Alojz Peterle of Slovenia. According to one parliamentary source, McGuinness is reported to be the favourite, but other, more cautious, internal sources have denied this.
The nominations of the EPP's candidate will be followed by the declaration as to whether Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium) will throw his hat into the ring as the Liberal candidate. According to a European source, if McGuinness becomes candidate, the Liberal MEP will declare. The Irish MEP is well known for her conservative views, most notably on abortion, a source told us. Her appointment would be extremely off-putting to the Social Democrats, which would leave a bit of room for a Liberal candidacy. Readers may recall that Sylvie Goulard put herself forward, to add more women to the list of declared candidates, but was ultimately removed from the race (see EUROPE 11686, 11679 and 11676).
The ECR group has presented Belgium's Helga Stevens and the GUE/NGL has put forward Eleonora Forenza, a feminist Italian MEP. For their part, the Greens are busy electing their new bureau (two co-presidents and six vice-president). The names of the two co-presidents are already known: Philippe Lamberts returning to his existing position, and Germany's Ska Keller to replace her compatriot Rebecca Harms. At the moment, the group is not planning on putting forward a candidate for the Presidency of the institution. "We are well aware that we haven't got a chance", Lamberts explained. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)