Manfred Weber sees his place in Europe.
The current EPP group leader does not want for Parliament
Brussels - The CSU European politician Manfred Weber surprisingly renounces a candidacy for the office of President of the European Parliament.
Bayer, who failed in the fight for the post of EU Commission head in 2019, wants to become chairman of the European party family EPP instead, as he announced on Wednesday in the group in the European Parliament.
EU: Weber wants to become EPP boss - and "strengthen European Christian Democrats"
The bourgeois Christian Democratic European People's Party (EPP) includes, for example, the German CDU and CSU * as well as the Austrian ÖVP.
Weber currently leads their group in the European Parliament *.
The 49-year-old would like to keep this position and combine it with that of the EPP Chairman.
"It's about strengthening the European Christian Democrats in a challenging time and drafting an agenda for the future," Weber said in Brussels.
Radicals from left and right and global changes challenged Europe.
This requires a clear and convincing answer from the political center and the Christian Democrats - especially with a view to the upcoming European elections in 2024.
European politics: President of Parliament as a stepping stone?
The EPP presidency is currently held by the former EU Council President and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He had recently announced that he would take over the leadership of the largest Polish opposition party in order to break the hegemony of the national-conservative ruling party PiS in his home country.
Until recently, Weber's intention to become President of Parliament was considered certain because the post attracts a great deal of public attention. The SPD politician Martin Schulz succeeded in becoming his party's chancellor candidate in the 2017 federal election. The Spaniard Josep Borrell, who was Parliamentary President from 2004 to 2007, is now the EU's foreign affairs representative. Incidentally, in a recent interview, Weber talks about the current situation in Germany - and calls for “more political leadership”.
(dpa)
