Abstract
In the run-up to the 2019 European elections, the Europarties put forward lead candidates for the presidency of the European Commission. These Spitzenkandidaten were at the forefront of their electoral campaigns. This chapter focuses on how five Europarties—European People’s Party, Party of European Socialists, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, European Green Party, European Left—selected their lead candidates and how these procedures have changed compared to the 2014 European elections. The results suggest that the Europarties only made relatively small procedural changes, which did not contribute to the sustainability of the Spitzenkandidaten system.
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Notes
- 1.
We use both the terms Europarties and European parties to refer to the political parties at European level: the extraparliamentary party organizations to be distinguished from the political groups in the European Parliament.
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Appendix: List of Semi-structured Interviews with Policy Advisors Undertaken in the Framework of this Chapter
Interview A: European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels, 16 April 2019.
Interview B: Party of European Socialists (PES) in Leuven, 4 June 2019.
Interview C: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) in Brussels, 27 March 2019.
Interview D: European Green Party (EGP) in Brussels, 31 January 2019.
Interview E: European left (EL), Telephone Interview, 28 October 2019.
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Wolfs, W., Put, GJ., Van Hecke, S. (2020). The Second Time Around: Status Quo and Reform of the Europarties’ Selection Procedures for Spitzenkandidaten in 2019. In: Kaeding, M., Müller, M., Schmälter, J. (eds) Die Europawahl 2019. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29277-5_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29277-5_13
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