BrusselsStarting the game of chairs to occupy the major positions of the European Union. This weekend, just before activity in the European institutions resumes after the Christmas holidays and less than six months before the European elections on June 6-9, Charles Michel has been the first to move and has announced that he will present himself as head of the list of the Reformist Movement (liberal party of the French-speaking part of Belgium). Now, with what goal?
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The Belgian leader has not specified which position he aspires to occupy and has avoided clarifying whether he intends to revalidate his mandate as president of the European Council or, for example, lead the European Commission. However, the main favorite to lead the community executive is the current president, the conservative German Ursula von der Leyen, with whom she has very bad relations and maintains a fierce struggle to become the top leader of the European bloc since the beginning of this mandate.
One of the other options is the presidency of the Eurochamber, currently in the hands of the also conservative Roberta Metsola, or to go down a rung in the power ladder and be content with being a European commissioner. It must be remembered, in any case, that the liberal parliamentary group is the third most important in the European Parliament and that, therefore, the conservatives and the social democrats have more weight when it comes to negotiating which major positions remain.
Be that as it may, the current president of the European Council will ensure representation in the Eurochamber and, in this way, he is already guaranteed a position of power in the European institutions, although his mandate has passed with more pain than glory and has been greatly overshadowed by the leadership and international projection of Von der Leyen.
You criticize Michel until the end
Michel’s years as president of the European Council have been characterized, above all, by the constant criticism he has received from both sides of the political spectrum, even from within his own party. He has been accused of using his position rather electorally and personalistically and leaving aside an important part of his functions, such as that of coordinating and working for greater understanding between the twenty-seven member states. In this sense, he has often prioritized starring in photos with international leaders for the benefit of his popularity and has neglected his duties in Brussels.
In the same vein, Michel’s decision to stand for election and leave the presidency of the European Council early, next July, has also raised dust. The Belgian leader argues that the fact that an active president of the European Council is competing for the first time in history in a European election is a democratic exercise and defends that his “responsibility is to take account of the work done during the last four years and of the future project” that he presents for the EU.
However, one of the consequences that this electoral movement can trigger is counterproductive for the functioning of the European bloc. If the Twenty-seven do not find a replacement for Michel before the beginning of July, the Hungarian president, the far-right and Eurosceptic Viktor Orbán, will temporarily preside over the European Council until November, when the mandate of the Belgian leader. This situation can occur because Hungary will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in the second semester.
For this reason, the European partners will have to choose the president of the European Council after the elections in June. The Belgian leader has already brushed off the responsibility and said that he warns “in time” so that the Twenty-seven avoid that Orbán, who systematically obstructs the EU’s support for Ukraine, ends up leading crucial European summits for to all sorts of affairs, especially for the war against Russia.
Michel’s arguments, however, are not quite convincing. One of the harshest voices has been MEP Sophie In’t Veld, also from the Liberal group. “The captain has abandoned the ship in the middle of the storm. If he is so uncommitted to the fate of the EU, how credible is he as a candidate?”, wrote to X the Dutch woman, who is from the same group as the Belgian leader .
Reynders wants to preside over the European Council
The move by the current president of the European Council has already triggered other movements. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, who is from the same party as Michel, has seen his will to obtain representation in the Eurochamber or to obtain some weighty position in the European institutions hindered. Nevertheless, Reynders is not giving up and, according to various Belgian media, he has upped the ante: the presidency of the European Council. This Wednesday the Belgian government will decide whether to support Reynders’ candidacy.
Who has not yet advanced his intentions is Von der Leyen. Michel’s internal archenemy has played a leadership role in the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine that have positioned him as the undisputed leader of the EU, far above the current president of the European Council. Although its role in the Israeli-Palestinian war has so far been slow and for a large part of European leaders too pro-partisan, even skipping the community consensus on the conflict, the conservatives continue to lead the polls and Von der Leyen is the name that sounds the strongest to return to captain the executive of the European Union. Michel, at the moment, does not even tickle him.
2024-01-08 16:42:57
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