The European Popular Party (PPE) has chosen this Wednesday to Maltese Robert Metsola as his candidate to preside over the European Parliament from next January.
A few weeks ago not many people outside the Eurocámara knew who Metsola was and had suggested that it would become the maximum favorite to the post would have generated teasing, but politics is unpredictable and after several surprises in their own ranks and those of the opposition
, Your options are very real.
Metsola (1979) has been imposed in an internal process to Lange’s Dutch Esther and the Austrian Othmar Karas. The Spanish Esteban González Pons was in the terna of candidates until recently, and was the candidate with more weight within the group, but the lack of support from the head of rows of him, Pablo Married, forced him to stop. First it was a step to the side so as not to be burned ahead of time, but as it was clear that married did not trust him, he did not trust him, or probably, he chose not to formally present. Genoa aspires to another position, that of the PSE presidency, which will be decided in the month of April at the Congress of the Party in Vienna. And that has conditioned the decision. The married option is López Isturiz tone, general secretary of training for many years and that from late summer it makes numbers to know if he would have sufficient support for disabling the German candidate, Manfred Weber. González Pons had a complicated path, but López Istúriz also, and the battle implies a clash of many more carats who can leave remarkable wounds.
What is happening in Brussels is complicated, has endless bifurcations and part or ends precisely with Weber, who was a candidate to preside over the Commission, which was the maximum favorite to preside over the Eurocámara now and that, however, has surprised almost all
Say that no and postulate for a peculiar budfalia: the mere head of the group in Strasbourg, but also the presidency of all the PPE, something that generates many doubts among theirs.
The vote for the presidency of Parliament will take place on January 18 and the most logical is that there are two, and only two, possibilities: the Maltese or the current president, David Sassoli.
In July 2019, at a five-day summit, the Heads of State and Government of the EU distributed the main Community positions, attending to political, geographical, population and gender criteria.
It was a long and strange negotiation that left in the hands of the Italian socialist stranger Sassoli the reins of the Eurocamera.
The covenant, signed, argued that after two and a half years, in the Ecuador of the Legislature, the post would be at the hands of the European Popular Party, the most voted force in the European Elections of 2019 and which has the Presidency of the Commission.
The deadline has almost expired and yet the socialist family does not want to resign.
Last week, the Social Democrats re-elected the Spanish Iratxe García as head of rows.
And on Tuesday, at an internal meeting, they decided to move forward with the order.
Sassoli has not officially postulated but the message of him in the meeting was clear: Conservatives should not charge the piece, whatever happens.
“It is unacceptable that the conservatives are at hand in the cycle prior to elections,” he said.
He has declared himself at the disposal of the group, which he does not see the viability of him, but that he understands is the only realistic option possible.
In his family they argue that today’s Europe is very different from that of 2019 and that signed equilibria are not sustainable.
There is no longer any ‘popular’ at the head of the great continental powers, and, they argue, it does not make sense that therefore occupy the presidency of the Commission and Parliament.
That thesis, controversy, had a certain weight in September and the bets could even fall from his side, but his candidate, Sassoli, is not the same as then.
In September he became ill, he developed a pneumonia and has taken more than two months to recover, which has triggered rumors about the physical state of him and the suitability of him for an institutional charge with such an intense agenda.
He has been absent from several plenary and a European Council.
He is 65, he is an inveterate smoker, and has been clearly touched.
The negotiation is now intense and requires covenants.
Popular, social democrats and liberal add 423 seats of 705;
Socialists, green and liberal stay at 318, insufficient to decant the vote.
The greens are more than willing to listen to offers, but the liberals run the danger that if someone moves, decides to enter as a revenge in the negotiating basket, the only other high charge whose duration is two and a half years: the presidency of the European Council
, who holds one and yours, the Belgian Charles Michel.
The key role in the Hemicycle will now have WEBER and GARCÍA, but some of this caliber can assume the involvement of heads of state and government if they enter more places in rotation. The German argues that Pacts Sunt Servanda. La Española, in a complex balance, that the 2019 agreement is not good for them (even though the negotiator was Pedro Sánchez). It was the only possible thing then, but it must be updated, because their group has also lost the presidency of the Eurogroup, so the status quo should be maintained. The Parliament is gathered this week in Strasbourg, it will return in December and in the January session, but probably only if it is tight. Sassoli and the environment of him say it is frustrating that the mandate of him has been marked by the pandemic, by remote sessions, and he wants to complete the legislature to be compensated. It is a complicated figure, which has irritated many with its style and a very closed team in decision making, but at the same time it is not uncomfortable for heads of state and government, because their profile is quite low and has not been Created too many problems this time.
