For the entire electoral campaign Martin Schulz had been repeating “We won’t accept any back-room deal on the name of the President of the European Commission” as a mantra. Now, this is the accusation every other group at the Parliament is charging him – with a reason. “On the Parliament Presidency everything was discussed behind-the-scenes between socialists and populars.”
Yesterday in fact socialists and populars decided to split the post in two – each party will lead the Parliament for half a term, without asking anything to any other party about the choice. It has been usual, with the only exception of Pat Cox, Liberal, in 2002 – yet this time is different, and the agreement brought about a revolt among the other parliamentary groups, which are proposing their own candidates. Unfortunately, this seems to be only a battle on principles.
“My decision of running for the post of President of the European Parliament has been pushed by this back-door agreement among national governments about top positions of European institutions,” explained Ulrike Lunaceck, Greens, in presenting her candidacy. “Shulz is going back to the past” attacked the ECR conservatives – with a spook of “Back to the future” poster, with Martin Schulz as Marty McFly. Their candidate will be the British Sajjad H Karim, who could be strategically supported by the group led by Farage and the Five Stars Movement. GUE, United Left, will also present its candidate.
The only ones trying to keep cautious on the issue are ALDE liberals. Their leader, Guy Verhofstadt, still hopes to be part of the negotiations on the creation of the forthcoming Commission. Was this to fail, next Tuesday – when MEPs will be asked their secret vote on the President – their votes should not be counted. The same could happen for several ‘snipers’ among both EPP and PES, given that not everyone there was happy about the lonely fight led by Martin Schulz.
