Thorning-Schmidt for EU?

[celedhring]

Yep, in the wake of strong anti-EU vote nothing will make it more popular than to the states superseding the parliament and appointing a president by shady compromise.

Almost as much as a power-grab by a minority of the European parliament of a traditional prerogative of the member states will increase the popularity of the EU.

They way the election was sold to the voters is that they would be choosing the new president, with debates and all. If member states weren't going to go along with it, then they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

[Admiral Yi]

My vote goes to John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt.

[Sheilbh]

When did "spitzenkandidat" become an English word? I read that in an article on WSJ too.

We've got no word for it so the German one's become the norm. Same with things like acquis, or communautaire (as an adjective), or formateur. There's no easy English replacement.

Christine Lagarde would be an excellent choice.

I agree. One of the problems with the spitzenkandidat idea is that a lot of very good candidates won't run because they'd have to give up their current position to campaign in an election which they will have no say over. Schulz and Juncker had no power over the CDU or Labour's European campaign and whether they 'win' or not would be based on national politics. So the only people who'll be available are the unemployed (Juncker) or MEPs (Schulz, Verhofstadt).

The British media's said Lagarde and Tusk would be available. I think they're both far, far better candidates.

Yep, in the wake of strong anti-EU vote nothing will make it more popular than to the states superseding the parliament and appointing a president by shady compromise.

How did the groups choose their candidates? And will a Conference of Presidents in the Parliament be significantly more democratic? The governments of the states have all been elected with somewhere over 50% turnout and have far greater legitimacy than the Parliament just declaring that actually they (or the groups) will choose the next Commission President, not the Council.

I mean the Parliament's basis for this is this article from the TEU:

Taking into account the elections to the European Parliament and after having held the appropriate consultations, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall propose to the European Parliament a candidate for President of the Commission. This candidate shall be elected by the European Parliament by a majority of its component members. If he does not obtain the required majority, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall within one month propose a new candidate who shall be elected by the European Parliament following the same procedure.

It seems an odd result to take into account the European elections and then appoint Juncker.

Lagarde? I don't know about her status at the core countries, but as head of the FMI she's hated throughout Club Med.

That's a shame. The IMF's the one on Club Med's side within the Troika.

They way the election was sold to the voters is that they would be choosing the new president, with debates and all. If member states weren't going to go along with it, then they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

Okay but this was what the Parliament said. The UK and German government both objected to it and said they wouldn't be bound. So did Herman van Rompuy representing the Council. It wasn't accepted, I think as much as tolerated as an experiment that failed - all the spitzenkandidat parties lost seats and votes.

[Agelastus]

Yep, in the wake of strong anti-EU vote nothing will make it more popular than to the states superseding the parliament and appointing a president by shady compromise.

Almost as much as a power-grab by a minority of the European parliament of a traditional prerogative of the member states will increase the popularity of the EU.

They way the election was sold to the voters is that they would be choosing the new president, with debates and all. If member states weren't going to go along with it, then they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

Then the voters in your country were misled, deliberately or otherwise; the election was not "sold" to voters in the UK on this basis as it was always made clear when the issue was even mentioned that our government would not support the candidacies suggested and that it additionally did not agree with the European Parliament's interpretation of the Treaties.

The various UK news outlets were also quite clear that we were not alone on this issue (as Sheilbh pointed out, Germany has taken the same position.)

As far as the British voting public was concerned the candidatures in question from the two largest groupings in the European parliament were either seen as being a dead letter or not even registered as being an issue. I think in general Sheilbh would agree with me here.

[Zanza]

We've got no word for it so the German one's become the norm. Same with things like acquis, or communautaire (as an adjective), or formateur. There's no easy English replacement.

As far as I know, the British elections for the EP are proportional based on lists per constituency, right? If so, how do you call the first person on each party's list? Because that's just what "spitzenkandidat" means in German.

[Sheilbh]

We've got no word for it so the German one's become the norm. Same with things like acquis, or communautaire (as an adjective), or formateur. There's no easy English replacement.

As far as I know, the British elections for the EP are proportional based on lists per constituency, right? If so, how do you call the first person on each party's list? Because that's just what "spitzenkandidat" means in German.

We don't have a word for it. They'd be top of the list that's it.

And I can't think of a specific English word in, say, Haaretz for the top of Israeli party lists either.

[Agelastus]

We've got no word for it so the German one's become the norm. Same with things like acquis, or communautaire (as an adjective), or formateur. There's no easy English replacement.

As far as I know, the British elections for the EP are proportional based on lists per constituency, right? If so, how do you call the first person on each party's list? Because that's just what "spitzenkandidat" means in German.

Since it's the only election for most of the UK that uses lists no-one's come up with a term; "here's the first name on the list" at most. It's not as if the leading candidate in any region is the party leader etc. as would be the case for a PR General Election so there's never been any need to distinguish people who are first on the list (and might get in even if they're LibDems or Greens) from those second and below.

[Richard Hakluyt]

We've got no word for it so the German one's become the norm. Same with things like acquis, or communautaire (as an adjective), or formateur. There's no easy English replacement.

As far as I know, the British elections for the EP are proportional based on lists per constituency, right? If so, how do you call the first person on each party's list? Because that's just what "spitzenkandidat" means in German.

We call them "that bloke that I've never heard of" 

[Liep]

Merkel and HTS in Berlin. RUMOURS RUMOURS RUMOURS.

[Sheilbh]

British view is that it's now doomed to be Juncker (though Cameron still insists he's fighting).

Renzi's been the most interesting through this.

[The Brain]

I don't give the proverbially flying fuck about this shit.

[sbr]

I'll bet I care less.