Christian Kern will ultimately not be a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission for the Party of European Socialists (PES).
The former Austrian chancellor announced on Saturday 6 October that he was withdrawing from politics "for personal reasons" and that he would not run for the nomination of his party's Spitzenkandidat, contrary to what he had suggested two weeks earlier (see EUROPE 12099).
According to a source close to Christian Kern's party, Andreas Schieder, the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the National Council, will be the Austrian SPÖ candidate, but for his candidacy to be valid, he will need the support of at least 9 parties in the PES.
At this stage, only the current Slovak energy commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, is in the running, although he has not yet submitted any official candidacy to the party. Since the French commissioner for economic and financial affairs, Pierre Moscovici, indicated last week that he was not interested, all eyes have turned to the current vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.
Nominations are open to the PES until Thursday 18 October and a vote is scheduled for 1 December, after a hearing in the preceding month. The official candidate will be confirmed at the PES congress in Lisbon on 7-8 December. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)