BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen is readying plans for a second five-year time period as European Fee president and her get together is urgent her to launch the official marketing campaign as quickly as doable, in accordance with two officers knowledgeable about her considering.
The timing of a possible announcement, not confirmed by individuals near von der Leyen, is the topic of pressure between her workplace in Brussels and a wider group together with EU diplomats, staffers and members of the conservative European Individuals’s Social gathering (EPP) who need her to formalize her reelection bid.
“She’s going to marketing campaign,” stated one official who was granted anonymity to debate confidential plans.
Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit is operating to develop into the center-left European Socialists’ lead candidate for the EU election, an announcement this week which heaped stress on the previous German protection minister to elevate the veil round her reelection plans.
Whereas von der Leyen is more likely to search a second time period, she introduced again in September that she gained’t run in Germany for a seat within the European Parliament within the EU election.
Standing within the Parliament election is what each lead candidate (spitzenkandidat) is meant to do in accordance with guidelines drawn up by MEPs earlier than the 2014 poll. These guidelines would see the spitzenkandidat of the profitable faction within the election turning into Fee chief. Nationwide leaders ignored the method after they picked von der Leyen for the primary time.
The stress can be linked to the truth that, if von der Leyen plans to run as EPP lead candidate, she should formalize her curiosity by late February.
The almost certainly state of affairs for von der Leyen to verify her bid, in accordance with three officers, is that she would accomplish that following an official endorsement from her residence get together in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in mid-February. As a way to formally develop into the EPP’s lead candidate, she would wish backing of two EPP member events not from Germany — Poland’s Civic Platform and Greece’s New Democracy, for instance.
Von der Leyen would then be formally nominated because the EPP’s lead candidate following a vote on the EPP’s early March electoral congress in Bucharest.
EPP or bust?
Because the EPP’s lead candidate, von der Leyen may keep in her job as Fee president, however she must abide by guidelines that govern campaigning for EU workplace.
In that sense, her state of affairs — an incumbent operating for reelection as her get together’s lead candidate — can be unprecedented. Ex-Fee chief Jean-Claude Juncker ran as a spitzenkandidat, holding a collection of EU marketing campaign occasions, however he was not an incumbent. Conversely, in 2019, EPP chair Manfred Weber ran as a spitzenkandidat, campaigning each on the EU stage and in his native Germany. However he was not a Fee official, and ended up not getting the job.
Different questions concerning von der Leyen’s plans are nonetheless to be answered, particularly who would run her marketing campaign, and what can be her central message for Europeans. POLITICO reported Thursday that her get together was finalizing a marketing campaign manifesto that known as for tripling Europe’s exterior border power, canceling plans to ban the combustion engine by 2035 and upholding the EU’s “Christian values.”
But it surely stays unclear whether or not von der Leyen, who supported the combustion engine ban as Fee president, may undertake as her personal a manifesto that requires a repealing a significant a part of her personal legacy — hinting at additional tensions to return between the get together and its lead candidate.
On the coronary heart of the matter is the truth that, as Fee president, von der Leyen has ruled with the backing of the Socialists & Democrats and the Greens, proposing laws that has repeatedly been at odds with the EPP rank and file. In a single case, concerning a so-called nature restoration legislation, Weber led an open rebel in opposition to the Fee’s proposal, which narrowly handed a vote in Parliament.
As a candidate, von der Leyen would face different such tough selections between EPP orthodoxy and a extra centrist agenda. What’s extra, she must be conscious of strictly separating her official duties as Fee president from her campaigning.
That would show sophisticated for a frontrunner who often meets EU leaders as a part of her common work, however may even be counting on their help to verify any potential reelection bid.
In line with the rulebook, all marketing campaign occasions should be bankrolled by her get together, the EPP.
Every little thing else could be paid for by the Fee, which may proceed to supply safety and transport for the EU govt chief throughout her marketing campaign, as is the case for the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who has introduced a bid to run for workplace as an EU lawmaker.