European elections
European Greens elect German as top candidate
Terry Reintke leads the European Greens as the top candidate in this year’s European elections. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
In four months, a new European Parliament will be elected in the EU countries. The European Greens are entering the race with a German MEP at the helm.
German MEP Terry Reintke is leading the European Greens as the top candidate this year European elections. Delegates also elected the Dutchman Bas Eickhout as the male top candidate at a party congress in Lyon, as the European Green Party (EGP) announced on Saturday. The 36-year-old Reintke received a good 55 percent of the votes. A good 24 and 20 percent of the delegates voted for her two competitors, Eilna Pinto from Latvia and Benedetta Scuderi from Italy. At the beginning of June, the citizens of the 27 EU states are called upon to elect the members of the European Parliament.
Reintke comes from Gelsenkirchen and is the leader of the Green Party in the European Parliament. She is considered a self-confident feminist and advocate of strong social policy. After the election she said: “I will fight for a diverse, green and social Europe, a democratic Europe in which racism and hate have no place.”
The German Greens elected Reintke to the top spot on the list for the European election campaign at the federal party conference in Karlsruhe in November. It is therefore certain that Reintke will also sit in parliament in the coming legislative period. The European Greens have been meeting in Lyon since Friday. In addition to the election of the top candidates, an election program is to be adopted there.