EU’s Michel to run in election, will leave post mid-July
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EU Council President Charles Michel will run in the election for European Parliament in June and will leave his post mid-July if he gets elected, he said in an interview with Belgian newspaper De Standaard published on Saturday.
“I have decided to run in the European elections in 2024,” Michel said.
“If I get elected, I will take my seat. The European Council can anticipate and name a successor by end-June, early-July.”
Michel, 48, is a former Belgian prime minister and has served as chief of the EU Council, the group of government leaders of the 27 EU member states, since late 2019.
He will run as the top candidate for his Belgian center-right Movement Reformateur party, De Standaard said.
It’s the first time a sitting Council president will be a candidate in a European parliamentary election. Michel would normally have stayed on in the job until the end of November, when the new College of Commissioners would be installed. While Michel’s move is legally kosher, it piles extra pressure on European leaders, as they usually have more time for wheeling and dealing during the great top-job carve up that always comes after the five-yearly EU ballots.
Michel plans to take up his seat in the European Parliament mid-July if he’s elected, meaning EU leaders will have to agree quickly on a successor for his vacated Council post. If they don’t, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose country will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in July, would lead the meetings — a broker-role normally undertaken by the European Council president.
That scenario — an unchecked Orbán ruling the Council roost for the six months directly after the 2024 European election — is one most of the other 26 leaders of EU countries would be desperate to avoid, given escalating tensions between them and Orbán, for example over the Union’s support for Ukraine and Hungary’s rule of law infractions.
