All posts tagged Alexis Tsipras

Top stories: 28 September to 4 October 2013

  • PES opens nominations for ‘Common Candidate’ selection for next year’s European elections: On 1 October the Party of European Socialists (PES) officially opened the process to accept nominations for the position of candidate for Commission President, ahead of the European elections. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, is the clear favourite. The nomination period will be open until 31 October. PES; Europolitics; Euractiv
  • Frattini puts himself forward for Nato chief post: Franco Frattini, a former Italian foreign minister, has said he is a candidate to be the next Nato chief. In a Le Monde interview, Frattini said his experience dealing with security issues when he was EU commissioner, as well as the fact that he comes from a Mediterranean region country, make him a leading candidate for the job. EUObserver

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Across Europe, election lists are taking shape and the contenders for the principal jobs are jockeying for position. Here are some of the highlights:

 

France

Pascal Canfin, the current junior minister for development, has decided not to lead the European Parliament elections list for Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV). The current party leader, Pascal Durand, will lead the list instead, and will not contest the party leadership at the next vote in November. (Nouvel Observateur)

 

Italy

Franco Frattini, a former European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, will be Italy’s candidate to be the next Secretary-General of Nato. There are rumours that the current Commission President – José Manuel Barroso – will also be a candidate for this post. (Le Monde)

 

Greece

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) held meetings in Brussels on 1 October and is a strong contender to be the Party of the European Left’s candidate for the Commission presidency.

Tsipras also met the leader of the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda. While the predicted rise in support for fringe parties in the European Parliament elections could lead to a ‘grand coalition’ between the main pro-European parties, this meeting may signal that the centre-left will be prepared to work with the Greens and more radical left in the Parliament.

 

Netherlands

The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is set to put Hans van Baalen MEP at the head of its election list in 2014. The other Dutch party in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group, Democrats 66 (D66) are likely to be led into the European Parliament polls by Sophie in’t Veld MEP.

Another current MEP, Bas Eickhout, is likely to lead the GreenLeft (GroenLinks) party list, while Wim van de Camp MEP and Esther de Lange MEP are set to contest the top position for Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), a member of the European People’s Party Group.

As for the Labour Party (PvdA), there is a leadership race between four candidates: Zita Schellekens, Judith Merkies MEP, Robbert Baruch and Bernard Naron (a former advisor to the PvdA in the European Parliament. The current delegation leader, Thijs Berman, said that he wanted to make room for new candidates and fresh faces, and so is not running to lead the list, but will seek another term as an MEP. Berman’s successor will be selected by PvdA members on 29 November.

Update – 6 October: Volkskrant reports that Paul Tang is a fifth candidate for the leadership of the PvdA list for the European Parliament elections. For D66, current MEP Marietje Schaake has announced her intention to lead the party’s list and become the leader of the delegation, launching her campaign website this weekend.

 

The Party of European Socialists (PES) announced today the opening of a process of nominations to be the ‘common candidate’ of the Party for the European Parliament elections. This candidate would then be put forward as the PES candidate for the European Commission President.

In a statement, the PES said that the nominations process – which will last until the end of October – “is designed to meet the many demands for a more democratic and transparent way to designate key European Union posts. It is also hoped that it will increase interest in the election”.

According to the Party, each nominee needs to be supported by 15% of PES full member parties or organisations (at least one nominating the candidate, plus five other supporters). The PES Presidency will hold a meeting on 6 November to verify the process and announce the nominee(s), with the candidate being selected at the PES Election Congress in February 2014. The PES manifesto will be adopted at the same meeting.

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