Campaign posters featuring EPP lead candidate Manfred Weber ahead of the European election in May | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
The EPP leader says the French president’s opposition to his Commission presidency candidacy was an ‘attack’ on democracy.
Former European Commission president nominee Manfred Weber has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of committing an “attack on democratic Europe” together with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.
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Weber, the leader of the dominant center-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, unsuccessfully campaigned for the Commission presidency earlier this year as the EPP’s Spitzenkandidat, or lead candidate.
Macron had led the opposition against Weber getting the job and against the Spitzenkandidat system, under which EU leaders are expected to nominate the candidate of the party that wins the most seats in Parliament. Orbán also did not support Weber. The job eventually went to Ursula von der Leyen.
Weber told the German media group Funke in an interview published Sunday that Macron’s pre-election comments — in which he suggested Weber did not have the necessary experience to become Commission president — had been “presumptuous” and constituted “an attack on democratic Europe.”
He added: “Macron formed an axis with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the Council. Together, they have caused severe damage to European democracy.”
Yet he said that ultimately, Parliament — specifically the Socialist bloc — was to blame for his candidacy’s failure. “I was unable to even reach Frans Timmermans, the social democratic Spitzenkandidat, in the decisive phase,” Weber said.
Weber also reiterated his support for von der Leyen, saying the “developments were not her fault.”
Under the upcoming German presidency of the Council of the EU, Weber said the bloc needed to tackle migration and climate change, repeating his demand for an EU “climate ambassador.”