While the Heads of State or Government met in Brussels and were due to discuss the appointments to senior European positions to be filled by the end of 2019 (see EUROPE 12279/1), the Social Democrats of the S&D Group and the Liberals of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament made it very clear on Thursday 20 June that they will not vote in favour of the European People's Party (EPP) candidate, Mr Weber.
It was the Belgian Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group, Philippe Lamberts, who revealed this strong opposition after a meeting of the four Presidents of the main pro-European political groups—EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA—who are developing their own strategic priorities for the next institutional cycle.
On the margins of the EPP European Party pre-summit, a source from the Christian Democratic Group in the European Parliament confirmed that the Liberals and Social Democrats would be rejecting the candidate. She also indicated, however, that the question of an alternative had also been asked of these groups.
"And the answer is that there is also no other alternative likely to have a majority”, added this source, for whom, "without the votes of the EPP, nothing is possible in the European Parliament”.
A second source from the EPP group believed that the political family line remained the same after the EPP pre-summit: Manfred Weber's candidacy would still be valid.
"There is no plan B at the moment and we will not give up," she promised.
According to Der Spiegel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also defended Manfred Weber's candidacy during several bilateral meetings with her counterparts. According to her, eleven Heads of State or Government would be against Manfred Weber, while seven others would be in favour.
Any candidate would need to receive broad support, both from the European Parliament and the EU Council, Merkel also argued upon her arrival at the EU summit.
After the EPP pre-summit, "it is our view that the largest party in the European Parliament, the one that won the European elections, that the president of the European commission should fall to us and our candidate is Manfred Weber”, said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. He predicted that a new European summit would be held at the “end of June or the start of July”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Marion Fontana)