Timmermans comes with candidacy for the European Commission

European Commissioner Frans Timmermans is a candidate in the elections for the European Parliament as party leader for the Labor Party. He will announce this afternoon in Heerlen, the place where he lived until he moved to Brussels.

At the same time as his candidacy he will announce that he will also be available as a ‘Spitzenkandidat’ for the European Social Democrats, the group of which, PvdA, is a member of the European Parliament. If he becomes that, it means that he is pushed forward by the Social Democrats to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission.

The Timmermans name has been circulating for some time as Juncker’s successor. But after his announcement this afternoon there are still three obstacles. First, he must actually be elected as party leader of the PvdA. The current group chairman in the European Parliament, Paul Tang, has also reported again.

When Timmermans wins the race within the PvdA, he must then be elected Spitzenkandidat by the Social Democrats. There is another candidate, a Slovakian Euro commissioner, but Timmermans has in any case secured this week the important support of the German Social Democrats.

The election results next year will then determine whether the Social Democrats are in a position to put their candidate forward as the new President of the European Commission. This nomination must then ultimately be approved by the European Council, which means that Timmermans must ultimately also be supported by Prime Minister Rutte.

But it is not that far yet. As a candidate of the Social Democrats, Timmermans will campaign throughout Europe, but because European voters can only vote for candidates from his own country, he has to stand for election in the Netherlands. He will therefore mainly campaign there and that amounts to a temporary return of Timmermans in Dutch politics..

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