International

Next week, the European Parliament will elect a new president. Although there are three candidates, Martin Schulz, currently leader of the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (PASD), the Parliament’s second biggest political group, is already openly referring to himself as the “future president”. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong explains: “For years the Parliament’s two major groups, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the centre-left PASD, have divided the most important functions between themselves to the exclusion of other parties. With the aim of putting an end to this cosy arrangement, I am actively supporting the independent candidacy of Diana Wallis. That Schulz is already calling himself the future president demonstrates that he does not take democracy within the EP seriously. Moreover, he has this week advised his own supporters to postpone a controversial resolution on Hungary which was to be put this week, because of pressure from the PPE. Such a person is not fit to be president.”