Une nouvelle majorité parlementaire est nécessaire pour se défaire de Barroso

Le Parlement européen doit trouver une nouvelle majorité en 2009 : il y a tant de raisons pour le changement, a écrit Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Président du Parti socialiste européen (PSE), dans un post sur Blogactiv.  

The new Parliament will have a « much more decisive role » in determining who will be Commission president, explains Rasmussen. He suggests that many in the EU assembly « are in the mood to reject Barroso, » adding that his own parliamentary party, the PES, does not support the Portuguese. 

The former Danish prime minister argues that the political response to the crisis has created a « much wider and deeper gulf between progressives and conservatives ». He says the PES response to the crisis is « very different from the lack of action from the conservatives ».

Rasmussen also suggests that Europeans « simply need a new leadership and better management of the crisis ». 

For all these reasons, « a new majority is firmly on the table, » says the socialist, before warning that one must wait to see « how the numbers stack up after the elections » before predicting the composition of the future Parliament. 

Rasmussen said it also remained to be seen who would leave the conservative group along with the British and Czech conservatives, « and if others in addition to the Italian Democrats come into our tent ». 

The PES leader pointed to the nervousness of his opponents, observing that current Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, a conservative, wanted to put the new Commission president to vote « as early as July ».