Top candidates elected
Barley and Strack-Zimmermann set course for Europe
January 28, 2024, 3:45 p.m
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With more than 98 and 90 percent of the votes, the SPD and FDP elect their top candidates for the European elections. Both parties, which are currently in low polls, emphasize the importance of the election and warn against populist parties.
The SPD and FDP are going into the European elections in June with two high-profile female politicians. The Vice President of the European Parliament, Katarina Barley, is the top candidate for the German Social Democrats. She received 98.66 percent of the votes at the delegate conference in Berlin. At the European party conference on the same day, the FDP elected its defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann to the top with 90 percent.
The election preparations are accompanied by fears that right-wing parties and populists could gain popularity in the election. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD said he was counting on a “clear vote against the right.” The European elections are an opportunity to do this “by voting for democratic parties and not the right-wing ones”. The best way to send a signal is to vote for the SPD, the oldest democratic party, said Scholz.
Meanwhile, FDP leader Christian Lindner warned urgently against turning the European elections into a lesson for the established parties and voting for the AfD. “There’s a lot at stake on June 9th. It’s not a protest election, but a creative election on June 9th,” he said. The AfD is a danger to civil values and democracy. It wants the European Union to become a “quarry “The AfD’s program would ruin Germany economically. And that’s why this program must not be implemented under any circumstances.”
Traffic light in survey low
720 representatives will be elected in the European elections. As the most populous country in the EU, Germany has the most parliamentarians. Scholz and his traffic light government with the Greens and FDP in Berlin have been in the polls for months. At the last European elections in 2019, the SPD achieved its worst result to date in a nationwide election with 15.8 percent – the FDP got 5.4 percent at the time. There is no five percent threshold in the European elections. In polls for the federal election, the SPD is currently at 13 to 16 percent, the FDP at 4 to 6 percent.
Lindner also pointed out Europe’s difficulties in ensuring its own security, competitiveness and regulating migration. “The problems are so big that they can either be solved at European level or they will remain unsolved,” he said. He called on EU states to invest more in their security and improve common military capabilities. “Not against NATO, not without Washington, but we must be able to defend the European Union, our values and interests even in case of doubt.” This also includes closer cooperation between the fragmented European arms industry.