The European Green Party has launched its campaign for the Euro elections.
On Monday, it opened a call top candidates for the 2024 EU elections, also known as “Spitzenkandidaten”.
The selected Green leading candidates “will be the heart and face of our political family” in the campaign debates and events leading up to the EU elections on 6 to 9 June 2024.
Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel, co-chairs of the European Green Party issued a statement.
It reads: “During our Electoral Congress in Lyon on 2-4 February hundreds of delegates from all Green parties will elect our two European frontrunners.
“We call on other European political parties to do the same, to ensure a transparent political discussion prior to the EU elections taking place on 6th-9th June.
“Our top candidates are also our nominees for key positions, such as the Commission presidency if the opportunity arises. This is because we believe that behind-the-scenes arrangements, like the one we witnessed in 2019 with von der Leyen’s appointment to the Commission presidency despite not being a candidate, are no longer tolerable”.
Any member party of the European Green Party can nominate a contender by 28 November at the latest. All contenders will introduce themselves on 2-3 December 2023 to the representatives.
To highlight how the European elections transcend national borders, all contenders must acquire the explicit backing of at least five more EGP member parties by 7 January 2024 to become a contender in the election.
The election of two leading candidates will happen at the European Greens Electoral Congress in Lyon from 2 to 4 February 2024. At this event, hundreds of representatives from all the Green parties in the EU will vote. Consistent with EGP election rules, at least one of the contenders elected must be female, and the two elected contenders cannot be from the same country.
Waitz and Vogel added, “We think our method for choosing leading candidates is more transparent than those used by other European political parties’. During our congress in Vienna in June, the Greens endorsed massively our transparent approach.”
“We urge other political parties to pick their own candidates, so that the European election campaign can have a very concrete political discussion. We want the other political parties to stick to the lead candidate process, and we want them to ensure that their lead candidate(s) are really their candidates for the Presidency of the Commission in order to the back-room-deals of 2019. Will Ursula von der Leyen be the leading candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP)?”
The statement goes on, “As Greens we would like to go further, and have a true European election with transnational lists so all European citizens can vote for the same candidates, regardless of their country.” However, the European Parliament’s proposal is currently blocked in the EU Council.
Polls indicate a move towards right-wing and far-right parties in Europe. However, the Greens have recently celebrated four significant successes: in the European Parliament the Greens won a political victory on the nature restoration law.
