February 18, 2020 / By mobanmarket
STOCKHOLM — Forget the idea of the European Parliament as a backwater for has-been politicians.
Big names from political parties across the Continent — including government ministers — are running in this week’s EU election, ready to swap their high-profile domestic careers for a seat in Strasbourg and Brussels.
Some have been accused of using the election as a stepping stone to becoming a European commissioner. For others, a move to the EU offers an escape from their parties’ domestic troubles. Some are suspected of planning never to take up a seat in the European Parliament. But many insist Europe is the place to be if you want to make a difference these days.
Germany’s Justice Minister Katarina Barley is the lead candidate for her Social Democrats in the European vote, while Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell tops the list for his country’s governing Socialists.
In Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has put six ministers on its candidate list. In France, Nathalie Loiseau stepped down as Europe minister to lead a new movement formed for the election by President Emmanuel Macron.
Sweden’s Alice Bah Kuhnke may not be as big a name on the European stage. But she served for more than four years as a government minister and is a rising star in the Swedish Green party, often tipped as a future leader. So it was a surprise to many when she stood down as culture and democracy minister to lead the party’s list for the European Parliament election.
But Bah Kuhnke said the move made perfect sense, particularly for someone with her political priorities.
“For me as a Green, the European Parliament is where we can make the most difference,” she told POLITICO in an interview in the parliament in Stockholm. “We need collaboration because emissions don’t have a border and solidarity shouldn’t have a border and that is the core of all Green politics.”
Bah Kuhnke has strong pro-EU credentials. She has been her party’s representative at the European Greens for the past three years and campaigned actively for her country to join the EU in a referendum in 1994.
“When we got the chance to say yes or no to the European project, I said yes, I shouted yes,” she said.
The Swedish Greens are in dire need of an electoral boost after nearly crashing out of parliament in domestic elections last year following a difficult term in power alongside the Social Democrats.
Putting Bah Kuhnke at the top of the ticket seems to have gone some way to helping the party recover.
A survey by pollster Demoskop for the daily Expressen suggested she is the most popular lead candidate for any party, with a 31 percent approval rating. She is also the most well-known with the electorate, with a recognition rate of 93 percent.
However, according to POLITICO’s own projections, the Swedish Greens are still on course to fall from four to two seats in the next European Parliament.
With the new Parliament set to be more fragmented and more Euroskeptic than ever, Bah Kuhnke won’t be short of challenges.
“I am prepared for a hard fight. It won’t be easy,” she said.
Still, a more fragmented Parliament is also an opportunity for smaller parties like the Greens to gain more bargaining power, particularly if other pro-EU parties need them to form a working majority.
One party the Greens will not be working with is Poland’s PiS, the conservative and nationalist party that has been accused by the European Commission of undermining the rule of law. The European Greens have already ruled out cooperation with them and other Euroskeptics.
But PiS has also decided it’s important to have big names in the EU institutions to fight its corner. Among its six ministers standing in the European Parliament election is Interior Minister Joachim Brudziński.
PiS listed so many big names that opposition lawmakers suggested the whole thing is a ruse to win support for the party, after a poor showing in local elections last year, and that some of the candidates would withdraw after the vote.
Brudziński denied that allegation. “I intend to work hard and with full responsibility for Poland and for the EU,” he insisted in a tweet earlier this year.
In a radio interview in March, Beata Kempa, minister for humanitarian affairs and MEP candidate, played up the need for Poland to have a special role in the EU and influence its future direction.
“We want to be an active member of the Union and participate in many debates on a partner basis,” she said.
For German Justice Minister Barley, the decision to switch from Berlin to Brussels and Strasbourg was not easy. She told POLITICO in an interview she was asked three times to be the lead candidate for the European election before she accepted.
But Barley, a dual German and British citizen, said she decided to stand in the end because she is concerned about growing nationalism.
“The situation in the EU has become worse, seeing the chaos around Brexit and the situation of some member countries,” she said. “This election will be decisive, we need strong social democracy in the EU to hold this Continent together instead of pushing for national egoism.”
Having such prominent politicians running in the election has prompted suspicions that the ultimate goal for some is not a seat in the European Parliament but a higher-profile job as a European commissioner.
Asked whether she would accept an offer to become a commissioner, Barley replied: “This is not the time for this kind of question. I will do my campaign and then see what the outcome will be.”
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Michał Broniatowski and Philip Kaleta contributed reporting.
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