The overarching EPP group of Christian Democrats in the European Parliament will decide on Wednesday whether to field a rival candidate in the re-election of European Parliament President David Sassoli in January. In that case, the Dutch Esther de Lange (CDA) is one of the three most likely candidates, alongside Spaniard Esteban González Pons and Maltese Roberta Metsola.
Originally, the German EPP group leader Manfred Weber was intended to succeed the Italian social democrat Sassoli as part of the distribution of European top positions among political parties. Because the Christian Democrats secured the presidency of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) in 2019, and the liberals took the Council presidency (Charles Michel), the EP presidency went to the social democrats.
The presidency of the European Commission lasts five years, but the other two positions have interim re-elections. Because Weber was considered too weak by the heads of government in 2019 for a Commission role, the groups agreed he could succeed Sassoli in the interim.
However, Weber recently withdrew his candidacy “because he wants to focus more on his German party activities.” The German Christian Democrats suffered a major defeat in the recent federal elections, lost the chancellorship, and are moving into opposition. The German CDU/CSU will have to “regroup” in the coming years and search for a new party leader. Current party leader Armin Laschet is considered “insufficiently charismatic.”
Now that Weber is foregoing the earlier “agreement,” Sassoli is considering not stepping down but running for re-election himself. The EPP must now decide whether to nominate someone else instead of Weber. If so, this threatens an open new battle over the distribution of positions and leads to a “political split” between the two major groups in the European Parliament.
Within the Christian Democrat group, three names circulate: Pons, Metsola, and De Lange. The Spaniard is popular within his own group but not at all with other groups. Maltese Roberta Metsola (42) has only been an MEP for a few years but was elected last year as First Vice-President of the European Parliament, replacing Mairead McGuinness who became European Commissioner at that time.
It is likely the European Parliament favors a female president: there have only been two in the past forty years. Dutch Esther De Lange (46) has been in Strasbourg since 2007 and is one of the vice-presidents within the EPP group. De Lange would be the first Dutch person to hold the influential position of Parliament President since PvdA member Piet Dankert (1982–1984).
That the overarching EPP party initially planned to hold a congress with European sister parties last weekend in Rotterdam supposedly had “nothing to do” with a possible announcement of a Dutch candidate for that EP election, it is consistently stressed from all sides….
If it comes to an election, young Dutch EU politicians want to approach the debate over the candidates differently. Lara Wolters (PvdA), Kim van Sparrentak (GroenLinks), and Mohammed Chahim (PvdA) want the European Parliament to hold a real debate and wish to question the potential new president about his/her views, positions, and ideas concerning the European Parliament.
“In the Dutch House of Representatives, the debate over the presidency election lasted a full seven hours, during which the Dutch parliament could ask questions to the candidates,” says initiator Lara Wolters. “Last time in the European Parliament, it lasted barely seven minutes.” According to Wolters and several other, mainly younger MEPs, things need to change.