The EPP candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission, Manfred Weber, launched his campaign on Wednesday 9 January by inaugurating a "listening tour" for citizens.
This took him to Cyprus, then to Spain and Lithuania. Supported by nearly 80% of the votes in November against Alexander Stubb, the leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament wants his campaign to be in line with "change" and not "continuity", he told journalists, and intends to present very concrete proposals soon.
In the meantime, he said he was open to speaking to all political parties with a pro-European vision and excluded working with anti-EU parties, with the candidate citing France’s Rassemblement national or the German AfD.
However, he believes that the discussion on the EU cannot be reduced to a "yes" or "no" to the EU, targeting Emmanuel Macron here, whose rallying to Mark Rutte he mocked, as the two men have little in common, in his opinion. He also mentioned the socialist family, which he considers to be ideologically wandering.
While the EPP candidate is open to any political party with a constructive discourse on the EU, EPP campaign director Dara Murphy rejected Euractiv's claims that Weber would be willing to work with Matteo Salvini and the Polish PiS. When asked about this, however, he did not specifically reject such cooperation either, believing that what ultimately counts, in addition to a pro-EU vision, is "to fulfil people's expectations".
With regard to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, the German's position also appears to be a little vague: although if he recalled having supported Article 7 of the TEU against Hungary (see EUROPE 12094), he still has not commented on the Hungarian leader's recurring controversial remarks. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)