politjobs.eu job alert – Brussels post-election troubles

Brussels may seem calm these days – but it is very far from that. The European Parliament’s newly elected MEPs and party groups are leading their internal debates, and it is all about who gets what with whom, who takes which position – and how to get a European Parliament candidate for Commission president (and which one) passed through approval of the Heads of State. The latter promises to be more than difficult and both Council and Parliament are not openly seeking confrontation just yet.

As for internal discussions, we see some interesting moves. First of all, ALDE is not ALDE anymore: in order to satisfy the new French MEPs from Macron’s de-facto-liberal-but-not-openly-liberal, the group renamed itself to „Renew Europe“. And „Renew Europe“ already has a leadership problem: French hopeful and leader of Emmanuel Macron’s European Parliament Renaissance list Nathalie Loiseau ousted herself of the leadership race by already insulting her new colleagues, by promising to build a party group with new methods, new centre and new leadership, and comparing Manfred Weber with an ectoplasm (for those who do not know what that is: the slimy stuff that ghosts leave behind and that the Ghostbusters go after).

Another leadership problem was fixed very swiftly: S&D leadership candidate – and S&D leader in the former Parliament – Udo Bullmann pulled out of his leadership bid against the only other candidate, Spanish Iratxe García. A logical decision, as the German Social Democrats suffered huge losses in the elections, whilst the Spanish became significantly stronger. Besides that and despite Udo Bullmann being a fine man, it certainly does not hurt the European institutions’ gender balance at all to have a woman leading the S&D party.

Also in trouble is the British Brexit party – for other reasons. The UK’s Electoral Commission is sensing fraud in relation to the donations the party received. A visit prior to the elections apparently revealed a more than chaotic structure, even if the Commission’s spokespersons used more diplomatic words. Essentially, the Commission asks the party to go back and review all payments, even and especially if below 500 pounds, and especially those via PayPal.

Meanwhile, we may want to get ready to welcome Brexiteer Boris Johnson in the ranks of the European Heads of State – he is the strongest contender in the race for replacing former UK Prime Minister Theresa May that is currently running over several rounds in the UK Parliament.

With all these personnel news, one factual issue also rose over the last days, to the particular joy of the Austrians: the European Court of Justice ruled the German Maut legislation as in breach with European law. The law had caused huge uproar especially in neighbouring Austria, because it was more or less openly aimed at getting drivers who do not reside in Germany to pay for German roads, whilst reimbursing German residents via tax breaks. Rumours are that the Austrians are celebrating their „second Cordoba“.

If you want to get closer to these sometimes absurd, sometimes more serious developments, find attached some jobs and as usual more on

politjobs.eu!

Irina Michalowitz