In the election for the chair of the European Christian Democrats, Manfred Weber received 89 percent of the votes. He takes over from Donald Tusk. The 49-year-old sends a clear signal to Ukraine: she is welcome as a member of the EU.
The CSU politician Manfred Weber is the new chairman of the European People's Party. At the EPP party conference in Rotterdam in the evening, the 49-year-old was the only candidate to get 89 percent of the votes. In addition to the CDU and CSU, the EPP includes a large number of other European conservative parties. Weber is currently leader of the EPP parliamentary group in the European Parliament and deputy CSU chairman.
After his election, Weber thanked him for the trust he had placed in him. The first message that the EPP as a family of parties must now send is a signal to Ukraine that it is welcome as an EU member. Weber had previously spoken out in favor of Ukraine joining the EU and calling for a reform of the European Union. "With the war in Ukraine, with the Kyiv moment, the time has come to adjust the EU treaties," he said. "In Europe we must have the courage and the strength to make bigger decisions and to get out of the small things."
Weber had criticized the EU compromise on the oil embargo against Russia. The "crippling dispute" over the new sanctions package has shown once again "that we finally have to abolish the principle of unanimity," he said. The heads of state and government were only able to agree on a far-reaching embargo on Russian oil imports on Monday after a long period of resistance from Hungary. "People are just fed up with being fooled by Viktor Orban and others."
Weber's election as EPP chairman was also supported by CDU leader Friedrich Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder, both of whom had traveled to the party conference in Rotterdam. The post became vacant because the previous party leader, Donald Tusk, had returned to the political stage in his native Poland.
Weber moved from Bavarian state politics to the EU Parliament in 2004, where he has been the EPP parliamentary group leader since 2014. In 2019 he was the EPP's top candidate for the post of Commission President, which, however, went to Ursula von der Leyen.
