The European Social Democrats want to name Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit as the top candidate for the EU election campaign today. Who is the man and what issues does the PES want to use to woo voters?
The European Social Democrats (PES) are entering the hot phase of the European election campaign. At their party conference in Rome they want to officially nominate the Luxembourg Commissioner for Labor and Social Affairs, Nicolas Schmit, as their top candidate. The 70-year-old has no challengers.
All important European socialist leaders are also expected at the party conference, especially Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The Social Democrats have so far been the second strongest force in the EU Parliament and are primarily positioning themselves against the strongest force, the Christian Democratic EPP. They will meet in Bucharest in the middle of next week to choose Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as their top candidate.
Who is Nicolas Schmit?
Nicolas Schmit is responsible for labor and social affairs in the EU Commission, i.e. core social democratic issues. The former ambassador, diplomat and labor minister of Luxembourg advocates, among other things, appropriate minimum wages in the EU and the strengthening of social rights.
The social summit in Portugal in May 2021 also took place during his legislative period. At that time, the heads of state and government in Porto agreed on an action plan. The main goal is to achieve an EU-wide employment rate of at least 78 percent by 2030. Further adult education should also be strengthened and the proportion of people in poverty or social exclusion should be reduced by at least 15 million in the EU by 2030.
However, the Labor Commissioner is considered less influential among the EU Commissioners. This has to do with the fact that the EU has hardly any competence of its own in this policy area.
Nicolas Schmit is often photographed these weeks. But his name probably means little to many EU citizens.
Why a European one at all? Top candidate?
The principle of the European top candidates goes back to the former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the then President of Parliament Martin Schulz. It should counteract disillusionment with politics – especially the impression that the will of voters in Brussels hardly plays a role.
The states decide on a proposal from the EU Council President for the election of the Commission President, which Parliament also has to confirm. According to the top candidate principle, the winner among the top candidates should ideally also become President of the EU Commission.
Head of the EU Commission
That didn’t work in the last election in 2019. The top candidate of the strongest party family, the EPP, the CSU politician Manfred Weber, failed, particularly due to the resistance of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The polarizing, social democratic leading candidate Frans Timmermans was also unable to win a majority among the states. Because of his unyielding nature in the fight for the rule of law, he made enemies especially in Poland and Hungary.
Ursula von der Leyen was elected as the head of the EU Commission as a compromise candidate, even though she did not stand for election at all. She is not fighting for a place in the EU Parliament in this election either, nor is the Social Democrat Schmit. But those who vote for their party express, in accordance with the top candidate principle, that they would like to see them in the office of Commission President.
What causes confusion is that, in addition to the European leading candidates, the parties in the member states also have their own leading candidates, towards whom the election campaigns are aimed. In Germany, Katarina Barley leads the SPD’s European election campaign.
What are the topics of the Social Democrats?
The PES focuses on classic social democratic themes in its election program. Candidate Schmit has already announced that he will fight for more social protection and better working conditions. Among other things, the Social Democrats want to ensure appropriate working conditions for platform employees, i.e. delivery services. A directive on this is currently being blocked by the EU states.
The Social Democrats also want to ensure that climate protection in Europe becomes more socially oriented. The Social Democrats also see themselves as a bulwark against a shift to the right. They accuse the Christian Democratic EPP of making the right-wing forces in Europe socially acceptable because their party leader Weber approached Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. One of the big geopolitical issues for the Social Democrats is continued support for Ukraine.
What role could they? Social Democrats in the coming one legislative period play?
The Social Democrats want to at least defend their role as the second strongest force. They have comparatively great support in Spain, Romania, Portugal and the French-speaking south of Belgium. In Germany, the SPD is exposed to harsh criticism of the traffic light government.
The European Social Democrats are likely to play a decisive role in the election of the heads of the new EU institutions, especially when it comes to confirming Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President.
Geographical proportionality also plays a role
Their election and that of the President of the Council and the President of Parliament follow a complicated arithmetic. The three strongest factions share the offices. Geographical proportion also usually plays a role.
In the last election, the post of Commission President fell to the EPP, while the Social Democrats filled the post of President of the EU Parliament with the Italian David Sassoli, who held the office from 2019 until his death in 2022. The EU Council Presidency fell to the Belgian liberal Charles Michel.
If the next parliament moves further to the right, it will make the search for majorities more difficult. Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens would have to move closer together, which is difficult to imagine right now. The parties are far apart, particularly in the dispute over new environmental requirements of the European Green Deal.
Paul Vorreiter, ARD Brussels, tagesschau, March 2nd, 2024 10:43 a.m