Sven Giegold

Election of the EP-President: a race of broken-winged candidates

Over the past two days, and ahead of next Tuesday’s election, candidates for the next President of the European Parliament have presented themselves to the Greens/EFA Group. Sven Giegold MEP, spokesperson of the German Greens in the European Parliament, comments on these questions and answers sessions:

“Neither the Social Democrats nor the Christian Democrats managed to present a convincing candidate. Tajani, as former spokesperson of Berlusconi, is a like a red rag to a bull. It is irresponsible of the Christian-Democrats not to nominate a candidate who is acceptable across party lines. For many, it would be impossible to vote for him. The President has a key role in dealing with breaches of Parliament’s Code of Conduct, with Tajani at the helm, no real progress towards greater transparency or integrity could be expected. He replied to my precise questions on this topic with general statements. Pitella, the Social Democratic candidate, is also problematic. From a political perspective, we have had bad experiences over and over again with Pittella during recent years. There will be no automatic support of Pittella from the Greens, even in the case of a run-off with Tajani.

The bickering between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats about the next President makes the Parliament seem like a kindergarten. While Manfred Weber accuses the Social Democrats of breaking a promise, the Christian Democrats, and Social Democrats too, are just as guilty of having failed to fulfill their commitments on posts and staff to the Liberals. When making their respective promises to each other, it seems everyone involved sneakily kept their fingers crossed behind their backs.”

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