Frans Timmermans lays ground for left coalition against EPP

Frans Timmermans, the Socialist nominee for Commission president, used the last major candidates’ debate Wednesday to push for a left-wing alliance that could break the center right’s monopoly control of the EU leadership.

POLITICO reports how the candidates struggled to distinguish themselves and offered little clarity for voters about how the EU would respond to rising nationalism or answer aggression by China or the United States.

But on questions about climate change, economic policy and resurgent nationalism, Timmermans sought to portray his Party of European Socialists (PES) as in close harmony with the Greens and the far leftists, and he led his fellow candidates in blistering attacks on Manfred Weber, the German nominee of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP).

Via POLITICO