Luxembourger Nicolas Schmit will be the candidate of the European Socialists to lead the campaign for the elections on June 9. The current Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights will be proclaimed spitzenkandidat, the German word used to indicate the head of the list of political families in the EU who, in theory, is eligible to be the next president of the European Commission. Schmit will be proclaimed headliner on March 1 and 2 at the congress that continental social democracy will hold in Rome, as announced by the Party of European Socialists (PES).
Schmit has been the only candidate for the position and, therefore, at the end of the nomination period this Thursday, the PSE has announced that he has been designated as the “common candidate” of this political family for the June election. Although he has a long political career, Schmit is not a well-known candidate outside Luxembourg, nor even the most popular in the bubble of EU institutions in Brussels. Among the socialists, for example, the Spanish Josep Borrell or the Dutchman Frans Timmermans, who was the headliner in the previous elections to the European Parliament, have much more projection. This time, however, Timmermans is not available for the position, since a few months ago he chose to return to national politics.
Let Schmit be the top candidate of the Social Democrats does not guarantee that he is ultimately the one with the best options to preside over the European Commission for this political group. In fact, in 2019 the popular Europeans won the elections and their leader, Manfred Weber, was not even considered for the position. Yes, it was, however, the socialist Timmermans, although in the end the chosen one was the Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen. Precisely, the German is considered in Brussels as a favorite to preside over the Community Executive again if she finally decides to try.
In these months, the different European political parties are holding their congresses and electing their main candidates. Thus, the socialists meet in the Italian capital in the first days of March. The following week (the 8th and 9th) the European People’s Party will hold its conclave in Bucharest. The Greens have their meeting scheduled between February 2 and 4 in the French city of Lyon.
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