The European People's Party (EPP) will not sacrifice its candidate for President of the European Commission, Manfred Weber. At least not at this stage. This is the message that the EPP leaders, meeting on Tuesday 28 May ahead of the informal European summit, sought to communicate to the leaders of European political families who also performed well on Sunday 26 May, namely the ALDE Liberals, the PES Social Democrats and the EGP environmentalists.
Political families may be tempted to quickly block the way for the EPP candidate, such as the liberal family, which did not rally on Tuesday morning to the declaration of the Conference of Presidents to support once again this year the process of European top lists (see EUROPE 12265/2).
This message of support for Manfred Weber was conveyed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, on arriving at the informal summit, said she was defending the Bavarian, although she acknowledged that this was not the case for her entire coalition.
The President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on his arrival, also upheld the EPP’s stance. "I supported him throughout the process. He is a good man and he is our candidate", he told reporters.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar also reiterated his support for the Spitzenkandidaten process and candidate Manfred Weber, arguing that the election results (the EPP came first) should be reflected in the nominee. "The EPP won the most seats and our candidate for this position [the Commission President] is Manfred Weber, who strongly defends Irish interests".
However, the Irish acknowledged that we should talk to all political families, "S&D, Conservatives, Greens", and of course "Liberals".
At the EPP summit, Manfred Weber's entourage, at any rate, insisted that the centre-right family was behind the candidate and had no intention on Tuesday of starting to pre-empt other positions in exchange for Mr Weber's head.
The Bavarian is, in any case, well aware that he will need a broad base and a comfortable vote in his favour and "not only a single vote". He intends to secure a majority behind him by associating the S&D, the ALDE and also the Greens/EFA. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Lucas Tripoteau)