Belgian trade unionist Nico Cué and Slovenian Violeta Tomič (member of the Levica party, Slovenian Ecosocialist Party) were elected to become the 'co-spitzenkandidates' for the presidency of the future European Commission on behalf of the European Left (EL), following a vote (70 votes to 2, 4 abstentions) by members of the EL Executive Board on Saturday 26 January in Brussels.
Former Secretary General of the Wallonia-Brussels Metalworkers of the Belgian General Federation of Labour (WBM-FGTB) until 2018, Nico Cué occupies a prominent place in the Belgian trade unionist landscape. He is one of the initiators of the "Acteurs des temps présents", a territorial and anti-liberal movement launched in 2013, which brings together trade unions from the metalworking and agricultural sectors, academic partners, and cultural community. Recently, while the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was in the headlines, he made controversial statements in favour of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia to maintain jobs in Belgium while waiting for a coordinated response at European level, according to the Belgian press.
Violeta Tomič has an atypical profile. In Slovenia, Ms Tomič is a well-known figure, particularly for having been the pointed presenter of the television programme "The weakest link", according to SPA, the Slovenian news agency. She was elected in 2014 to the Slovenian National Parliament under the banner of the Levica party ('The Left'), then re-elected in the national elections of June 2018 and has since been chair of the committee on culture of this Parliament. Since November 2018, she has been a member of the parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where she advocates the Palestinian and LGBT cause. At the time, it was not yet decided whether she would be Levica's head of the list for the European elections.
The selection process has been long, starting last autumn (see EUROPE 12107). On Saturday, only these two names remained in the running. From beginning to end, the result was uncertain, as the possibility of not presenting anyone was still on the table on voting day (see EUROPE 12179). The preference of the delegations of the member parties of the EL was finally decided on a double candidature, like the Greens (see EUROPE 12146,12145). The will of the EL, explains an internal source, was not to choose a leading figure from a member party, as with Alexis Tsipras in 2014 (see EUROPE 10985), but to present "someone of the people for the people". (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)