O President of the PPE, Manfred Weber, received only one letter of appointment — from the German Christian Democrat party CDU — indicating the current head of the community executive to the position of head of list (‘Spitzenkandidat’) of the European party for reappointment in position, according to a statement.

Von der Leyen’s appointment must be confirmed at the EPP congress, scheduled for March 6th and 7th, in Bucharest, and joins that of the Luxembourger and European Commissioner for Employment, Nicola Schmidt, nominated candidate by the Party of European Socialists (PES, in its English acronym) and which will also have to be officially confirmed at the plenary meeting on March 1st and 2nd, in Rome.

For now, only the European Greens formally have two ‘Spitzenkandidaten’, maintaining the tradition of moving forward with a woman, Terry Reintke, and a man, Bas Eickhout, approved at the February 2nd congress.

The figure of the main candidates — in the German term ‘Spitzenkandidat’ — emerged in the 2014 European elections, with the largest European parties presenting their choices for future president of the European Commission, with Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker receiving an absolute majority of votes.

In the 2019 ballot, following which Von der Leyen was voted president of the European Commission, an attempt was made to apply this model again, but due to disagreement between political groups these main candidates did not occupy high European positions.

The European elections take place between June 6th and 9th.

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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2506222/ursula-von-der-leyen-e-a-unica-candidata-a-cabeca-de-lista-do-ppe

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