With Manfred Weber, a Bayer could become the new President of the Commission

With Manfred Weber, a Bayer could become the new President of the Commission

The European People's Party accompanies Manfred Weber as a leading candidate in the European elections.

Alexander Stubb (left) had to defeat Manfred Weber Image: REUTERS

By an overwhelming majority, the European People's Party (EPP) elected Manfred Weber to the top of the list of candidates for the European Parliament election in May 2019. The Bavarian CSU politician, aged 46, and the president of the the current head of the EPP faction in the European Parliament obtained 79.2% of the 621 votes cast. Former Finnish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb has arrived at just over 20% – less than expected thanks to his aggressive election campaign and his dynamic behavior.

In 2014, the pre-election result was not so clear: at that time, the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, won the victory with a victory of 64 to 36% against Michel Barnier, today. He is the Brexit negotiator within the EU.

At the sound of the "Queen", "One Vision", the next President of the European Commission was applauded, adopted and celebrated by his party friends on the big stage of the fairgrounds of the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

"A sign of unity"

The election results were not surprising, with several EPP party leaders being cast in favor of Weber, including Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. "It's not a success for an individual, it's a success for all of us," said Weber. The CSU politician rated the vote as a sign of "unity" and thanked Stubb for his "fair competition". "Let's take advantage of this momentum of Helsinki and we will win then in May," Weber said to the acclaim of the delegates.

Stubb turned out to be a fair loser and badured that he would be "one hundred percent behind our best candidate". But he also criticized the "denigration of the EU" in the ranks of the heads of government. If you continue with this, "then we will not win the hearts and minds of European citizens: too many leaders in Europe are driving with hate and fear," he said, referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

As head of the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber has worked with talent over the last four years to regain his stature and perfect his English – not very good – English. "We are builders of bridges, we must use this momentum, we will win in May 2019", he said before the delegates of the congress. "We will win in May 2019," he said after the announcement of the result. In his speech, he addressed the central themes of the Christian Democrats: better border management, from the fight against illegal migration to security and social protection.

"Must defend the values ​​of the EU"

The rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and freedom of expression should not only be included in the EU treaties, said Weber. "We must defend these values, even within the European Union," said the new main candidate, who at the same time adopts a moderate attitude towards the party in power, the Hungarian party Fidesz, which, in turn, does not please everyone in the group. Hungarian Hungarian Nationalist Prime Minister Orbán's party belongs to the EPP, but calls for expulsion have been repeated.

If the EPP won the highest number of votes in the European elections in May, Weber should follow Jean-Claude Juncker at the head of the commission, according to the current rules of the game. He would be the first to this post with no government experience and the first German in 50 years. That these rules remain, however, is debatable. French President Emmanuel Macron did not reject them.

Verbal exchange between Tusk and Orban

EU Council President Donald Tusk has sharply criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Helsinki for his controversial policies between national conservatives. "Effective border management can not mean defying our values," Tusk told the EPP Congress. "If you are against the rule of law and an independent justice, you are not a Christian democrat."

Under the applause of the delegates, Tusk also castigated xenophobia, anti-Semitism, friendship with Vladimir Putin against Ukraine and the tendency to "place the nation above the individual" "as incompatible with the status of Christian Democrat. "Nobody, at least not in our political family, has the right to attack liberal democracy and its foundations," Tusk said.

Viktor Orban had previously propagated his policy as a winning concept of the EPP: "To win, we must return to our spiritual roots.It is time for us to think and act again as champions," Orban said. . "We must take responsibility for the fact that we have failed to keep the British inside and the migrants out," he said, referring to the by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on refugees.

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