Asked on Thursday 1 February about his political future in the run-up to the European elections, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, told the French-language Belgian public news channel La Première that he would not be a candidate for his party, the Reformist Movement (MR).
Previously tipped to head the MR list for the European Parliament elections in June, it was the current President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who was finally nominated at the beginning of January, before changing his mind on 26 January (see EUROPE 13337/37).
“Other choices had been made and I had also made choices”, recalled Mr Reynders, pointing out that in the meantime he had submitted his candidacy, supported by the Belgian government, to head the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe (see EUROPE 13326/20).
“I want to stick to a position and not add chaos to chaos”, he continued, acknowledging that Charles Michel’s U-turn “has done nothing good”. He also indicated that he had not been consulted on the successive decisions taken by the Council President.
“This has an impact on the Reformist Movement, because we have made choices. The choice was clearly for Charles Michel to stand at the European elections. I therefore decided to seek the support of the Belgian government (...). I think that once you’ve taken this kind of step, you have to continue”, he summed up. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)