European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič pulled out from the race to become the Social Democrats’ lead candidate for the EU elections in May next year.
Šefčovič will back the only other contender in the race to be the political grouping’s Spitzenkandidat, Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
In a letter to Sergei Stanishev, the President of the European Socialist party family (PES) seen by POLITICO, Šefčovič pledged to “endorse Frans as the PES Common Candidate to be presented for a vote in order to lead our party family into the 2019 European Parliament elections.”
“I stand ready to to support Frans and work closely with him,” he added.
Šefčovič’s move came after two internal party debates, the last of which happened at a meeting of Socialist leaders before the October EU summit. Šefčovič, from Slovakia, had collected the support of nine PES parties, maily from Central and Eastern Europe. Timmermans was able to produce 12 letters of support, including larger delegations at a PES congress next month such as Germany’s SPD.
