Manfred Weber announces run to lead center right in European election

Bavarian aims to become Commission president — but that’s far from guaranteed.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the center-right group in the European Parliament, declared on Wednesday he is standing to be his party’s candidate for Commission president in next year’s European election.

If he secures the nomination at a party congress in November, the 46-year-old Bavarian will officially be the European People’s Party (EPP) candidate for the top EU job under the so-called Spitzenkandidat, or “lead candidate,” system backed by the European Parliament.

However, leaders of EU governments have said that legally they cannot be bound to the Spitzenkandidat system, so there is no guarantee he will become Commission chief even if the EPP comes first in next May’s election.

Weber, a senior official in Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), announced his candidacy in a series of tweets in German, English and French.

“Europe is at a turning point,” he said. “Today, it’s about standing up for Europe and defending our values, because we are being attacked from outside and from within. It’s about the survival of our European way of life.”

Weber added, “There can be no more ‘business as usual’ in the EU. Europe is not institutions of bureaucrats and elites. I will help to bring Europe back to the people. A new start for the EU is necessary to achieve a better, more united and more democratic Europe.”

“I am standing to be lead candidate of the European People’s Party in the European election, in order to become president of the European Commission,” Weber said. “I told my EPP parliamentary group this today. I want to renew the connection between the people and the EU.”

No other EPP politician has so far declared an intention to run for the group’s nomination but former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, have been widely mentioned as potential candidates.

Following his Twitter flurry, Weber made a statement to confirm his candidacy at the European Parliament in Brussels.

An engineer by training, Weber served as a regional politician in Bavaria before becoming a member of the European Parliament in 2004. He is a vice chairman of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

Weber has no experience of high public office but he insisted he is up to the task of running the European Commission, the EU executive composed of some 32,000 employees.

“I was asking myself: Can I master the challenges? And my answer is yes — yes I am ready for it,” Weber told journalists.

Weber also played up his reputation as a coalition-builder.

“I will listen, I will try to manage a compromise and then I will lead, this is what I did as a group leader,” he said. “I want to build up bridges, because I deeply believe that only together we can be strong otherwise Europe has no chance in today’s world.”

Weber last week secured Merkel’s backing to run as the EPP’s lead candidate but officials from the chancellor’s party made clear this did not mean she was endorsing him as her pick for the Commission presidency.

Under the Spitzenkandidat system, pan-European groups of parties competing in the European Parliament election choose lead candidates to campaign across the Continent. Later, one of those candidates — most likely the nominee of the group that wins most seats in the election — should then be put forward by the European Council of EU leaders to be confirmed by a majority vote of the Parliament.

But leaders of EU governments have refused to give that system their unconditional backing. They argue that the EU treaties make clear they are responsible for nominating the next Commission president, taking account of the election results, but legally cannot be bound to choose from among the lead candidates.

The Spitzenkandidat process was first used in 2014 in the election of the current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

This article has been updated. Zach Young contributed reporting.