Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 3:49 p.m.
The popular Europeans, social democrats and liberals agreed this Tuesday on the distribution of senior positions in the European Union (EU). The three political families have agreed without the extreme right that they will support the German Ursula von der Leyen in her aspirations to renew the position of president of the European Commission and that they will support the Portuguese Antonio Costa and the Estonian Kaja Kallas for the position of president of the Council European and High Representative for EU Foreign Policy, respectively. The distribution of those known as ‘top jobs’ will be decided at the leaders’ meeting this Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
The negotiators have decided to bet on the Grand Coalition, following the formula that the large political families share the high positions of the community institutions. All this despite the fall of the liberals in the European elections – with the loss of more than 20 seats – and the rise of the extreme right, especially in large EU countries such as Germany, France and Italy.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has participated as a negotiator for the family of Social Democrats, together with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This role has also been played by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Donald Tusk on behalf of the European People’s Party (EPP); and the French leader Emmanuel Macron and the Dutch Mark Rutte on the part of the liberals. Left out of the equation – at least for the moment – are the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) family to which Georgia Meloni’s party and Vox belong.
The Italian Prime Minister, the Czech leader Petr Fiala and the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán already expressed their anger after last week’s leaders’ dinner and it remains to be seen if they could block the nomination of the three popular, socialist and liberal candidates . Meloni – who is trying to achieve a strong commissioner in the European Commission – will be the one who has the greatest negotiating capacity, due to his good electoral results and the need for Italy’s support as one of the large countries in the bloc.
#big #political #families #agree #distribution #senior #positions #extreme #Basque #Journal