On Tuesday 11 September, the leaders of the GUE/NGL Group, Gabi Zimmer from Germany, and S&D Group, Udo Bullmann from Germany, and the co-leader of the Greens/EFA Group, Philippe Lamberts from Belgium, announced they did not want to be nominated as the Spitzenkandidat by their respective European parties ahead of the European elections in May 2019.
"I think the parties of the left will present a candidature. As the leader of the GUE/NGL, I cannot compete or make myself available because it would be against the spirit of our group", Zimmer said, adding that the group was not the 'European arm' of the European Left.
The party of the European Left will announce a (or several) possible candidate(s) at the start of November, Zimmer said. Others say that this decision will be taken at the end of September during the General Assembly of the Party of the European Left in Brussels (see EUROPE 12086).
"I've already got the best job in the world. I would be very happy to be the group's leader still", Bullmann meanwhile said.
Lamberts confirmed that the party of European ecologists was going to present "two candidates" for the European elections. He will not be one of them. "But I will be a candidate for the leadership of the group (at the European Parliament) if I am re-elected", he said.
Lamberts also criticised the 'about-face' of Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) on the Spitzenkandidaten process, describing this behaviour as "shocking" (see EUROPE 12092). He wondered how Verhofstadt could now criticise this process because the "federal constituency" did not see the light although "five years ago, there were the Spitzenkandidaten, without a transnational list, and he was enthusiastic". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant, Sophie Petitjean and Pascal Hansens)