The EU’s liberal forces under Renew Europe launched their election campaign on Wednesday night (20 March) with the unveiling of their Franco-German trio of top candidates — and a message of unity against populism.
“Let us renew Europe now, together. I’m looking forward to an optimistic, pro-European election campaign,” German MP Marie-Agnes Strack Zimmermann, candidate of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) told the audience.
Strack Zimmermann chairs the Bundestag’s defence committee and is one of the unconventional choice of three ‘Spitzenkandidaten’, along with the current president of Renew Europe in the Parliament, Valérie Hayer, and MEP Sandro Gozi, secretary-general of the European Democratic Party (EDP).
Although, they say, they’re not after the ‘top jobs’.
“We are not campaigning for top jobs, we are campaigning for European people,” Hayer told reporters in Brussels. “Ursula von der Leyen and Nicolas Schmit are campaigning for themselves,” she added.
EU liberals were already in ‘campaign mode’ on social media after current EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was officially chosen as the European People’s Party’s (EPP) top candidate at its congress in Bucharest earlier this month.
The Socialists & Democrats picked little-known Luxembourg commissioner Nicolas Schmit as their Spitzenkandidat at their party congress in Rome at the start of this month.
“Ursula von der Leyen outvoted by her own party (…) Is it possible to (re)entrust the running of Europe to the EPP for another five years, or 25 years in a row?” wrote liberal French commissioner Thierry Breton on his official EU account on X (formerly Twitter) — triggering reactions from both sides of the political spectrum.
Renew Europe is currently the third political force in the parliament, but could lose around 15 seats in the upcoming elections in June, according to recent polls.
What’s more, it could drop to fourth or even fifth force in the chamber if the predicted rise in support for EU populist rightwing groups comes to pass — and depending on potential new alliances.
But the EU liberals see these predictions as premature, and on Wednesday night they jointly presented a newly approved 10-point manifesto of their priorities, marking the “official” firing of the starting pistol for their campaign.
“In the next weeks and months, we need to ramp up our defence capabilities, from research to military cooperation, to help Ukraine win the war and to deter threats from authoritarian regimes,” reads Renew’s manifesto.
The priorities set by the party also include a promise for the next EU commission to be an “investment commission” to make Europe more competitive against China and the US, and a pause on green and digital rules to focus on implementation.
“The last five years were about setting up rules, now we need to focus on implementing them, otherwise our businesses and citizens won’t be able to keep up,” the document says.
EU liberal leaders, where were you?
The launch event was held at the Museum of Art and History in Brussels and was attended by over 800 people — but some key liberal figures, such as French president Emmanuel Macron, were missing.
Of all the EU leaders from Renew Europe grouping, only Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas took the stage.
Neither Macron nor acting Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, who is now in the running for the top Nato job, were present, and even Belgian prime minister Alexandre De Croo was only seen in a recorded video.
All EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit to discuss security and defence, further support for Ukraine and the response to the latest developments in Israel/Gaza.