Until the end, Charles Michel tried to find a position that would give him international responsibilities, in particular, in the fall of 2023, by trying to win the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB). The President of the European Council, who was the Prime Minister of Belgium before taking the helm of the community institution in December 2019, did not imagine making his return to the Belgian political scene. But, lacking a way out, he had to scale back his ambitions.
“I have decided to stand as a candidate for the European elections in June 2024”he announced, Saturday January 6, to the daily newspapers The evening And La Libre Belgique, a few days after celebrating his 48th birthday. Charles Michel will lead the list of the Reform Movement (MR), the Belgian French-speaking liberal party from which he comes, like his father, Louis Michel, who was also prime minister, and his brother, Mathieu Michel, currently federal secretary of state at digitalization. “Four years after starting my mandate as European leader, it is my responsibility both to report on the work undertaken in recent years, and to carry out a project for the future of Europe”, he explains.
“This therefore means that I exercise my function as President of the European Council until I am sworn in as a Member of the European Parliament, which will take place on July 16”specifies Charles Michel, while his mandate was to end at the end of November and he intended to remain in office until the end, his relatives assured a few weeks ago.
A mixed result
Depending on the results of the European elections, scheduled for June 6 to 9, European heads of state and government will have to decide who will be the next presidents of the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. The replacement of the current NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, planned for 1er October, should also be part of the great bargaining which accompanies these negotiations.
“At the end of June-beginning of July, it is planned that the European Council will meet and take decisions, in particular to appoint my successor. The European Council will have to decide when my successor will take office., specifies Charles Michel. The Twenty-Seven will be keen to choose him before Mr. Michel’s departure for Strabourg and to have him take office on July 17.
Indeed, the Council’s internal regulations provide that in the event of a vacancy, the position returns, temporarily, to the leader of the country which occupies the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). In this case, in the second half of the year, it will be Hungary, led by ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “The Europeans will do everything to prevent Orban from being, even temporarily, the President of the Council! »assures a European diplomat.
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