Michel said he underestimated the large amount of negative reactions. He also does not want the “controversy” to harm the European project.
Three weeks ago, Michel announced that he would run to become a Member of the European Parliament in Belgium, where he once served as prime minister. In a statement on Friday, he said he had doubts after encountering “intense media attention” and some “extreme reactions” from outside the European institution.
If Michel were not to be EU president in the second half of this year, there would be a chance that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban would take control of the EU agenda. That Hungarian control would coincide with the period during which a new European Commission is to be formed.