Today, the European Green Party is opening the call for 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 6th-9th June 2024.
Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel, co-chairs of the European Green Party comment: “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, as well as the Federation of Young European Greens, can nominate a contender by 28th November at the latest. All contenders will introduce themselves on 2 December 2023 to the representatives at the online EGP Congress. 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 7th 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.
Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel comment: “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)?”
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.
Sumar, including the Spanish Greens, blocked a far-right government in Spain.
The Polish Green party Zieloni, part of Civic Platform, helped to remove the hard-right PiS government in Poland, and managed to elect three MEPs.
And last June, four more political parties joined the European Green Party: the Slovenian party VESNA, the Portuguese parties PAN and LIVRE, and the Hungarian party Párbeszéd. More political parties from EU member states are currently applying for membership and their approval will also be voted on at the Electoral Congress in Lyon. The Congress will also decide on the approval of the EGP Manifesto and Priorities.
