Greens launch US style primary for EC top job

Frassoni: “We will make a pan-European campaign for Parliament with a common program”. The Greens are the first party to start the election process with voters participating via internet to choose the Commission president-candidate

The European Greens launch the first primary election in Europe. They are doing it to choose their candidate for the European Commission Presidency. They are following the request expressed with an overwhelming majority at the European Parliament last year; they want the next Parliamentary elections of May 2014 to include candidates for the EC Headquarters from different political groups and until now no other party has done so.

After a long debate at the recent council in Madrid (45 European Green Parties of which 33 are from the EU) the European Greens decided to do as always: there will be 2 candidates to guarantee there is at least one woman (in any case the 2nd will be a woman even if she had fewer votes than the 2nd male and even if the 1st will already be a woman). Reinhard Butikofer, German Co-President of the European Greens throws out joking (but it comes across neither as funny, nice or politically wise) and pretending to receive a phone call from Josè Manuel Barroso, who rejects a new mandate in favor of the Greens, explaining in essence that in any case he knows a Green won’t preside the Commission and therefore the problem of 2 candidates for equal status which should however become one, is not an issue.

Monica Frassoni, the other Co-President of the Party, explains rationally that “what we initiated is a pragmatic process, a path that continues and we have only taken the first step. To succeed in this alone will be a great outcome.” The environmental leader explains then that “our objective is to give 2 ‘European sides’ to the next election campaign for Parliament in 2014; we want to present ourselves with a European program common to all countries with a common manifesto, the same slogans with a proposal that has the broadest fundamentals possible that does not concern environmental issues exclusively but expresses our position on banks, on democratic reforms, on all European themes.”

Frassoni explains that “next year’s elections are very important for the democratic legitimacy of the Union and this kind of participatory tool is vital to reconnect citizens to the European Union.”

Technically the selection will begin in the next few months and on October 20th a maximum of 6 names will be chosen with the support of at least 5 national parties. Then, it is not even necessary that the 2 pre-chosen will be candidates in the list after the last step of selection, which will be in February but it is quite obvious that they will be, in just one country though because the Treaties foresee it. In Italy, on the other hand, there will be a bit bigger of a problem with the risk of the Greens disappearing, given that the Left Ecology Freedom, the association in which the Greens of the Smiling Sun asked to be admitted to the European Socialist Party. This choice prevents that party from being a reference of European Greens, obviously.

The selection will be made from the 33 Green Parties across the 28 EU countries and by sympathizers who will probably sign a political manifesto exclusively via the internet. There is optimism in the fact of finding a system that guarantees seriousness and transparency of the system. Regarding participation look at the USA: if there, she explains, in the primaries as required by law and as practiced for decades, between 5 and 15% of registered voters participate, the Greens would be “extremely happy” to reach 5% of their voters registered in the primary. “But even 2% would be a success” they add.

In Italy it will be a particular case, because the Sel party, the one in wich the Italians Greens (recognizeda by the Europeans one) are now, is asking to aggregate to the Europea Socialists Party, wich means that there will be no more a Green party recognized by the European one.

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