After all, Donald Tusk at least tries. In a few days he will give up his job as EU Council President, now the Pole applies for the post of party leader of the European People's Party (EPP). Tusk can talk and he does not mince words. He attacks the populists and encourages the EPP members not to let go of fake news and manipulation. Tusk defends the concept of the nation state, right here in the midst of EU friends. "Anyone who rejects political vocabulary and homeland," he warns, "will find it difficult to give people a sense of security and security."
Alone, more than dull applause does not bring him his dedicated speech. More than half a year after the European elections, Europe's Christian Democrats meet for a party congress. But the chic video screen with the elaborately produced video clips, the tight-paced showcases of the heads of state and government, and in the end the clear result of the election of Donald Tusk to the new party leader (93 percent) - all this can not cover the fact that the EPP on a search for meaning is. From the beginning of the party meeting in Helsinki, where the EPP voted CSU man Manfred Weber as their leading candidate for the European elections, little remained in Zagreb a year later.
No sign of Hollywood in Zagreb
If nothing else happens "like in a Hollywood drama", he could congratulate Tusk on his election victory, says outgoing party leader Joseph Daul in his speech. The man could be reassured: there is really no trace of Hollywood in Zagreb.
Most of the time, the plenary hall is almost empty, even as Vice-Party Chief David McAllister, formerly Prime Minister in Lower Saxony, leads with much order love through the applications, stirs hardly a voice for debate, hardly a hand to applause.
Instead, weary delegates linger over the double espresso or Flat White, which the Konrad Adenauer Foundation donated gratuitously for free, to the highlight of the event - the announcement of the outcome of the election Donald Tusk (he was the only candidate) and the speech of Angela Merkel. The Chancellor is not wrong if you briefly note that she has decided not to speak at the EPP party congress. The fact that she wants to give Turkey new money for the catering of refugees, she has previously announced after the meeting with Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
Ursula von der Leyen, the future head of commission, follows Merkel. Next Wednesday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg confirmed its team. From the Leyen, the commissioners of the EPP, at least, so the delegates can ever try to remember one name or another. Then she thanks Manfred Weber, the top candidate in the European elections, who had to make way for them in the end.
Antonio Bronic / Reuters
Merkel remains without surprise, von der Leyen introduces her team
After all, since Merkel's speech, the hall on Wednesday evening is a little filled again. Before that, many heads of state and government had withdrawn in five boxes with plastic walls, which the party congress has kindly set up right next to the press center - so-called bilaterals take place here, meaning four-eyes talks. So one can observe that Ursula von der Leyen meets Austria's ex and Baldwiederkanzler Sebastian Kurz and Ludovig Orban, the new head of government of Romania. By the way, the man is by no means to be confused with Viktor Orbán from Hungary, whom they prefer not to talk about on this day.
Alexander Dobrindt, the head of the CSU national group, has also found his way to Zagreb, he whispers with Merkel. Shortly thereafter, it will be taken up by Bojko Borissow, former coach of the Bulgarian Karate national team and now Prime Minister of the country, well.
The EPP family is getting smaller
Us else? Otherwise, the EPP will seek its place in a confused Europe. Of course, the European People's Party continues to be the most powerful organized party family in the EU (not that the level of European competition is particularly high), it will be the next Commission head with Ursula von der Leyen and the largest political group in the European Parliament.
But the influence is shrinking. In the new European Parliament, the number of deputies fell from over a third to just over a quarter of the 2014 election. Before the European elections, Europe's Christian Democrats, in addition to the Commission's head, also represented the Presidents of Parliament and the Council. Today, they occupy only one of the EU top costs, although probably the most important.
It also looked better with the heads of state and government - without Austria, where Sebastian Kurz is currently trying to form a government with the Greens, only nine out of 28 EU countries currently have EPP governments. It used to be almost twice as many. The weights in the European Council are shifting, as witnessed by tough Personal Poker in July.
In addition there is the sense of meaning. Certainly, the name of Viktor Orbán is shunned at the party congress, the membership of his Fidesz party has been suspended since March. Even the Fidesz MEPs who continue to belong to the EPP Group in Brussels have not even arrived.
"Now I'm ready to fight"
Nevertheless, the topic is omnipresent: should the EPP counter the themes of the populists or try to copy them to some extent? Donald Tusk even puts the demarcation of popular parties among the populists in the center of his application speech. The rule of law, civil liberties or simply decency are not a contradiction to law and order, he says. After five years he is sick of being Europe's chief bureaucrat, Tusk says, "now I'm ready to fight."
His problem is only: If the mood in Zagreb is an indicator, then he should quite alone in the battle drag.
