On Saturday 11 November, the new Secretary General of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Giacomo Filibeck, announced that politicians wishing to lead the socialists and social democrats at European level in the June 2024 elections have until Wednesday 17 January to put themselves forward.
The window to stand as lead candidate for the PES European political family is open “from Monday 13 November to 17 January”, he told EUROPE during the PES Congress in Malaga. “To be accepted into the internal competition, you need the support of at least 20% of PES members”, he added.
The working group that drew up the criteria will meet after 17 January to check that the conditions set have been met. “If there is more than one candidate, there will be a month and a few days to allow these multiple candidacies to face each other. And then we will come to the electoral congress, at the end of February, beginning of March”, which will take place in “Rome”, said Mr Filibeck, not ruling out the possibility of holding primary elections.
At the Rome congress, the European socialist family will adopt its electoral manifesto, which will be, broadly speaking, a summary of the resolution adopted in Malaga (see EUROPE 13290/19).
Adopted on Friday, the first version of this resolution did not contain any reference to the war between Israel and the terrorist organisation Hamas, due to differences between national parties. A second version endorsed the following day contained five paragraphs on the conflict in which the PES condemned the Hamas attack, demanded the unconditional release of Israeli hostages and the unimpeded supply of humanitarian aid to the Gazans, said it was “appalled” by the thousands of civilian victims and that Israelis and Palestinians had “a right to live in peace” and advocated political commitment, including through an international conference to find “a two-state solution”.
See the PES resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/9iu (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)