German CDU chief: ‘We still stand by Manfred Weber’

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer defends EPP’s candidate for Commission president.

BERLIN — The head of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said her party would “still stand by Manfred Weber” in his bid to become the next European Commission president, despite dwindling support for his candidacy among national leaders.

Following last week’s European Council, at which EU leaders failed to agree on who should head the European Commission and other top posts, an extra summit was called for Sunday, June 30. The leaders are under pressure to reach agreement on the top positions before the new European Parliament holds its first session on July 2.

“The CDU still stands by Manfred Weber,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told Germany’s Spiegel, urging Europe’s Socialists and liberals to reconsider their opposition to the conservative candidate. Just before last week’s summit, leaders of the Socialists and Democrats and the liberal-centrist Renew Europe groups in the European Parliament told Weber they would not support him for the Commission presidency.

The Spitzenkandidat — or lead candidate — system “is a step towards a more democratic Europe,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said. “The European Parliament and the parliamentary groups must consider carefully whether they should simply give up this progress.”

One of the main opponents of the Spitzenkandidat system is French President Emmanuel Macron, who has said Weber does not have sufficient “experience” and “credibility.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer said she had asked to speak with Macron about “transnational lists for the future,” referring to the creation of a new class of MEP representing a whole-EU constituency, which Macron had pushed for but which was rejected by the European Parliament.

However, Kramp-Karrenbauer said that “without top candidates, transnational lists make no sense.”