Brussels – Sandro Gozi, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, and Valérie Hayer: European liberals are not following all other political families down the Spitzenkandidat road (except the Greens, who traditionally have two candidates) ahead of the June 6-9 elections but are opting for a three-way race under a single platform: Renew Europe Now. The project will be officially unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday (March 20). However, the path to the polls in the 27 member countries for the three parties affiliated with the joint project inaugurated during this legislative term is clear.
The memorandum of understanding signed in May last year aligned the European Democratic Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, and the French Renaissance to the continuation of the Renew Europe experiment, which — with less than 90 days to the vote — clearly defines the platform with which to conduct the election campaign. After the nominations of the current chair of the Liberal group in the EU Parliament, Hayer, and EDP Secretary General Gozi – on March 1 and March 8, respectively – the choice of German MEP Strack-Zimmermann for the ALDE came today (March 11). Now everything is set for the event in Brussels, where the priorities of the European liberals and the three candidates will be formally presented.
There is no shared candidate for the three major currents of the European liberals political family – an option that has finally sunk in with the renunciation by the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas – but in the June European elections, the three candidates of the Renew Europe Now platform will challenge the Spitzenkandidaten already nominated at the head of the other European parties. The European People’s Party (EPP) confirmed the current president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at its Congress in Bucharest on March 7; the European Socialist Party (ESP) chose the current European Commissioner for Labor and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit of Luxembourg, at the Congress in Rome on March 2; the European Greens chose Germany’s Terry Reintke and the Netherlands’ Bas Eickhout at the Congress in Lyon on February 2-4; and The Left chose Austria’s Walter Baier at the Congress in Ljubljana on February 23-24.
Liberals in Italy
Renew Europe in Italy affects three parties of the liberal center: +Europa (ALDE member), Azione, and Italia Viva (PDE members). Speaking of the parties led respectively by Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzi, on the occasion of the Italian general elections in September 2022, the so-called third pole decided to recall its European identity by including the reference to Renew Europe in the symbol of the electoral agreement between Azione and Italia Viva. The experiment continued for a few months, until the break between the two leaders in April 2023, just when the charter of values, program, and name of the single party was being discussed. Senior sources within Renew Europe’s Italian delegation to the EU Parliament told Eunews at the time that there would be a reference to the Liberal group but that the orientation was toward a more Italian name than ‘Renew Italia.
At a time of complete uncertainty in managing the 2024 electoral campaign and the alliances among the three liberal parties, the hope within the Italian delegation is to improve on the results of the 2022 political elections. A double-digit result “would be considered a success since it would strengthen the number of MEPs in the delegation and make Italy one of the most significant delegations within the group. The support of the Renew Europe symbol is seen as “fundamental” since “you cannot separate national and European politics,” the sources said, reiterating the privileged dialogue with S&D and the EPP while ruling out any support for a right-wing alliance in the European Parliament.
Italia Viva joined the Renew Europe group on February 12, 2020, after the exit of MEP and now third pole’s head of delegation in the group, Nicola Danti (who took over on September 5 of the previous year from Roberto Gualtieri, appointed minister of Economy in the Conte II government), from the Democratic Party and of the Renzi-led force from the S&D group. A similar trend for Azione (Action) and its leader, Calenda, who was elected MEP in 2019 from the ranks of the PD and, after not even six months, exited to create his political force. For two years (since November 2019), Azione remained within the S&D group. However, on November 17, 2021, it officially joined the Renew Europe group. With Calenda’s election to the Italian Senate, the party remained without representation in Brussels for nearly a year and a half until the entry of former M5S Fabio Massimo Castaldo in Azione and the Renew Europe group just over a month ago.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
