Two MEPs, two outsiders join race for Greens’ EU election lead candidates

Green chief and MEP Terry Reintke (Germany), GroenLinks MEP Bas Eickhout (Netherlands), former Latvian presidential candidate Elīna Pinto, and the spokesperson for the Young European Greens, Benedetta Scuderi (Italy), are running to be one of the two European Greens’ lead candidates in the EU elections. 

The two lead candidates (Spitzenkandidat) will be the face of the Greens’ 2024 EU election campaign, while also running for the post of European Commission president, who will be appointed after next June’s elections.

Reintke was the first to announce her candidacy in October and is the favourite to get the top job.  

“Making the European Union climate-neutral and socially just is not a sprint, it is a marathon (…) As a long-distance runner, as a child of the Ruhr area, as a passionate European, I want to take part in the election campaign as the top candidate of the European Green Party,” she told the press in October. 

The other three names have been announced after the deadline to register candidates, and two of them are largely unknown to the Brussels bubble.

The highest profile after Reintke is the Dutch Greens (Groene Links) candidate, MEP Bas Eickhout. In the Parliament since 2009, he is currently vice-chair of the influential environment committee (ENVI). 

Elīna Pinto joins the race on behalf of Latvia’s greens (Progressīvie), who recently joined the government in coalition with the centre-right (New Unity/EPP) and the farmer’s party (ZZS/ECR). 

Currently working as head of communications and partnerships of the European Commission’s Representation in Luxembourg, Pinto ran in the Latvian presidential election in May. 

The Federation of Young European Greens has put forward its spokesperson as a candidate, 31-year-old Benedetta Scuderi. If elected, she would be the first southern European lead candidate

“This is a signal that the Green wave can also come from southern Europe, where environmental and social urgencies are deeply felt,” Scuderi told the press. “Young people can and must be protagonists of change – also in Italy and the South.” 

After the presentation of the candidates during an online congress on Saturday (2 December), they will need to find the support of at least five member parties to be eligible for the primaries.

The final vote to choose the two lead candidates will take place during the European Greens congress in Lyon on 2-4 February, following an internal pan-European campaign. 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

Read more with EURACTIV