How to avoid being dumped by your party, in 5 steps

Dear readers,

Welcome to EU Elections Decoded, your essential guide for staying up to date and receiving exclusive insights about the upcoming EU elections. This is Max Griera, writing this special Europe Day long-read from Brussels! Subscribe here.

In today’s edition

• Which MEPs have got the boot from the electoral lists? What are the reasons behind it? Find out in our step-by-step guide.
• Bits of the week: Centre-right EPP dodges vowing far-right isolation despite pressure from Socialists; What Google searches say about the EU elections, in numbers; data on MEPs side jobs; coming up-four days campaigning with Ursula von der Leyen.
• My favourite quote: “Years ago, people were put on the list because they had certain visions, experiences, ideas, knowledge and the ability to get a lot of votes; but this has changed, internal politics and stability of the party seems more important now,” Dutch MEP Toine Manders from CDA (EPP), with 20 years of experience in the European Parliament, said.

The revealing of June’s EU elections lists in the last few weeks has showcased a sad truth: politics can be very unfair and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are constantly walking on thin ice. Here’s a step-by-step guide to avoid being dumped from a party’s electoral lists. 

1. Be good on stage and media-friendly. “Well, I suppose that nobody will ever say that politics is always fair, because sometimes it is not,” said Catalonia’s Republican Left (ERC) MEP Jordi Solé after his party revealed he had been substituted for a famous Catalan icon, Tomás Molina, the regional TV’s weatherman. 

Facing dwindling polls, the Catalan nationalist party preferred to appoint a famous personality as their second candidate, rather than to stick to a safe, experienced pick.

As an official from the German Greens put it, “If you have a good performance on stage, then you have a higher chance of being elected on a good spot.”

…but do not overshadow the party. Careful though. If your personality grows over the party, they will slash you from the list. Ask famous Renew MEP Sophie in’t Veld, who after quitting her Dutch party D66 and joining Volt, was rejected from the Dutch lists due to her name overshadowing Volt’s, among other reasons. She now runs in Belgium instead.

2. Feed your regions’ lords. German Greens’ MEP Pierrete Herzberger-Fofana was tragically axed from the list after neglecting her regional Bavarian base. 

“If you don’t have support by your region, it tells people that the regional delegates are not so happy with that candidate, or they prefer another one, which happened in the case of Bavaria,” a German Greens official told Euractiv. 

Many parties, including the German Greens and Spanish Socialists, create their lists out of nominations from the regional chapters. 

Then, generally, a national committee consolidates the list considering other factors, such as regional representation, gender, and policy expertise, then submitting it to a party vote, either en bloc like the Spaniards, or position by position, like in the case of the Germans. 

Make sure to show face through your home region once in a while not to be forgotten, to get the nomination and support when the time is ripe. 

“What the candidates usually do is to go through local chapters of the party, well before the elections, and make their face known,” the German Greens official said.

3. Have friends in high places, mind internal politicking. Having your region’s support may well not be enough, as happened with Spanish Socialist MEP Ibán García del Blanco who, despite having regional support, fell through.

“It corresponds to internal organic dynamics of the party, if you are not in the right family or not supported by the right person,” a PSOE source familiar with internal dynamics told Euractiv. 

“You need to avoid having someone very powerful who does not want you to be there. Of course, if you have a good sponsor, that helps too.” In the case of Ibán, his experience “was not enough to overcome” resistance among the party’s leadership.

4. Zip it and follow the line. The ultimate candidate’s killer is deviating from the party line. Centre-right EPP MEP Othmar Karas, one of the most influential lawmakers of this term and Parliament vice-president, was not included by mutual agreement in his Austrian OVP party’s lists due to his opposition to the party’s right-wing drift. 

A similar case happened to current Christian-Democrat (EPP) MEP Toine Manders, with 20 years of experience in the European Parliament, who was kicked out of the Dutch liberal party VVD after submitting amendments to a law opposing the official party line. “I received some internal phone calls and, well, I was told they would not put me back on the list,” he told Euractiv.

“The more you follow the discipline of the party, the more you are rewarded,” he said, regretting that such policy is reducing the quality of new politicians, who do not dare to have new views and ideas as it might “backfire” on them: “I regret that politicians are increasingly more in line with the party.”

“Years ago, people were put on the list because they had certain visions, experiences, ideas, knowledge and the ability to get a lot of votes; but this has changed, internal politics and stability of the party seems more important now,” he said. 

MEPs whose parties are in government, such as France’s Renaissance, are known to be under a lot of pressure to pass key files that hold a strong national interest (migration, nuclear energy, support Ukraine), creating worry that if they do not achieve the goals set by the national government, they may lose their seats.

5. Choose your party wisely. Even if you follow all the steps above, turmoil in the party back home may end up undermining your career, as happened with the whole Portuguese Socialist delegation, who got sacked by the new party leader Pedro Nuno Santos, in what seems to be house-keeping after the corruption scandal that rocked high-ranking party officials, which led to the fall of former Prime Minister António Costa. 

“This is politically incomprehensible and leaves a terrible image of the country. Everyone agreed that it was a very compact delegation, very dynamic, well-considered,” an S&D MEP told Euractiv. 

But it can also be good to get the boot. Sometimes being kicked out from a list could also bear the news all MEPs await: a career upgrade with a brand new role in a national government. 

French liberal MEP Pierre Karleskind, despite having been a key actor in fisheries, was relegated far down on President Emmanuel Macron’s party coalition ‘Besoin d’Europe’. 

But he seems not to worry, saying on X: “The President has asked me to take on a new role, in line with my commitment to him and the work I have accomplished over the past five years in the EU Parliament for the post-European elections.”

Rumour has it he could become France’s next state secretary for the sea and biodiversity.

Bits of the week

Centre-right EPP dodges Socialists’ declaration on isolating far-right. As previously reported by Euractiv, the Greens, Socialists, and Liberals are pressuring the centre-right European People’s Party to commit in writing not to work with hard-right ECR after June’s EU elections. 

Following a violent attack against German Socialist MEP Matthias Ecke on 4 May, the Socialists group in the European Parliament (S&D) drafted a declaration condemning recent cases of violent acts against politicians, which also included a commitment not to work with far-right forces, attempting to corner the EPP into signing it. 

After back and forth on Tuesday, the EPP ultimately backed off from the declaration, which has been signed by Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, S&D, and The Left. 

“The EPP Group is not signing a statement which only aims to support the political campaign of one particular group [S&D], we have proposed concrete and reasonable changes to achieve a text supported by all democratic forces, that have been specifically rejected by that political group,” a spokesperson of the EPP group told Euractiv. 

In reaction to the EPP’s decision, Renew’s chief Valérie Hayer argued that “this puts their commitment to the common fight against destructive, far-right forces into question,” also urging them “to reconsider and to join this pro-European commitment.”

MEPs make a whopping €8 million plus on side jobs each year. A report by Transparency International EU reveals data on the side jobs lawmakers undertake next to their official duties. Some key data included: 70% of MEPs have a side activity, whether paid or unpaid; around 25% of MEPs have a paid side activity;  Lithuanian MEP Viktor Uspaskich made around €3million a year, selling ‘anti-COVID’ water, among others. Check all the data on this interactive site. 

Here’s what people are searching on Google. A comprehensive data review by Google on EU elections searches has brought bad news for the centre-left Party of European Socialists and their lead candidate Nicolas Schmit, as just 10% of queries were directed towards the party, while more than 50% of queries focused on their rival, the centre-right European People’s Party. 

The winner is the pan-European and federalist party Volt, which has garnered significant attention from the public, being the subject of 50% of searches in the first week of May.

Read more data insights by Euractiv’s Niko Kurmayer here. 

Four days of campaigning with von der Leyen. Euractiv will shadow Current Commission President and EPP’s lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen during her campaign trip to Split on Friday (10 May), where she will meet with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, followed by a visit to Italy, where she will be campaigning with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Stay tuned. 

If you’d like to contact me for tips, comments, and/or feedback, drop me a line at max.griera@euractiv.com

[Edited by Aurelie Pugnet/Rajnish Singh]

Read more with Euractiv