Herr Martin Schulz. Altra testa socialista che sta per cadere.

Giuseppe Sandro Mela.

2016-09-15.

 

«Martin Schulz should not seek another term as president of the European Parliament and allow a center-right MEP to take over the role»

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«Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union believe it is time for a conservative to be at the head of the Parliament»

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«Strains in Germany’s right-center ruling coalition are playing out in the race for the presidency of the European Parliament, with the conservative European People’s Party (EVP) trying to oust Martin Schulz, a German center-left Social Democrat»

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«Manfred Weber, who heads the EVP party in the European Parliament and is also German, told the Bild newspaper the party would present its own candidate for the presidential race in January 2017 to replace Schulz»

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«Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats are jockeying for position with the Social Democrats ahead of next year’s federal election in Germany»

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«Martin Schulz (Hehlrath, 20 dicembre 1955) è un politico tedesco.

Schulz è stato presidente del gruppo parlamentare dell’Alleanza Progressista dei Socialisti e dei Democratici presso il Parlamento europeo e il 17 gennaio 2012 è stato eletto presidente del Parlamento europeo, riconfermato il 1º luglio 2014 con 409 voti a favore.

Martin Schulz, il più giovane tra cinque fratelli, è figlio di Paul Schulz e Clara Schulz. Il padre, poliziotto, proveniva da una famiglia di minatori della Saarland, di orientamento socialdemocratico. La madre proveniva da una famiglia borghese e fu cofondatrice della sezione locale della CDU della sua città natale Hehlrath (oggi Eschweiler).

Martin Schulz, dopo aver frequentato il ginnasio superiore a Würselen, ha svolto un apprendistato come libraio dal 1975 al 1977. Negli anni tra il 1977 e il 1982 ha prestato attività presso diverse librerie e case editrici. Nel 1982 e fino al 1994 è stato proprietario di una libreria a Würselen.

La carriera politica di Schulz si è svolta interamente all’interno del Partito Socialdemocratico di Germania, a cui si iscrisse a diciannove anni nel 1974. Fu attivo all’interno della Jusos, l’organizzazione giovanile del partito, presiedendone la sezione di Würselen e poi la sezione del circondario di Aquisgrana. Fu consigliere comunale di Würselen, cittadina di quasi quarantamila abitanti nella Renania Settentrionale-Vestfalia, dal 1984 al 1999 e ne fu sindaco dal 1987 al 1998[4]. All’epoca della nomina, con i suoi trentun anni, era il sindaco più giovane del Land.

Nel 1991 Schulz fu nominato membro del consiglio nazionale del partito, di cui fece parte ininterrottamente sino al 1999. Nel dicembre 1999 entrò nell’ufficio di presidenza e nel direttivo federale dell’SPD » [Fonte]

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Il suo settarismo si è concretizzato in una comportamento faziosamente di parte, che gli è valso numerose risposte altrettanto tranchant.

«signor Schulz, so che in Italia c’è un produttore che sta montando un film sui campi di concentramento nazisti: la suggerirò per il ruolo di kapo. Lei è perfetto!»

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«M. Schulz, qui est le président du groupe socialiste au Parlement, est un monsieur qui a la tête de Lénine et parle comme Hitler.»

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«Mais je ne sais pas pourquoi tu t’énerves, Martin. Tu n’es pas encore Président du Parlement ! Du calme, camarade, du calme.»

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«some Germans still find it difficult to accept diversity in Europe and differences of opinion»

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«È insopportabile sentir pronunciare menzogne alla Knesset e per giunta in tedesco» [Uri Orback, Ministro israeliano]

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Il suo passato di alcolizzato ne ha marcato severamente il comportamento.

Adesso anche i fedeli alleati di un tempo lo vogliono far fuori. Ma la sua superba ambizione sfiora i tetti del cielo:

«The German option has proven challenging. The one attractive, immediate opening was to run as the Social Democrats’ (SPD) nominee for the chancellorship in Germany’s general elections in fall of 2017»

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→ Reuters. 2016-09-15. German coalition strains spill over to European Parliament

Strains in Germany’s right-center ruling coalition are playing out in the race for the presidency of the European Parliament, with the conservative European People’s Party (EVP) trying to oust Martin Schulz, a German center-left Social Democrat.

Manfred Weber, who heads the EVP party in the European Parliament and is also German, told the Bild newspaper the party would present its own candidate for the presidential race in January 2017 to replace Schulz. He said Schulz and his Social Democrats agreed earlier that the conservatives would rotate into the presidency at that point.

The dispute reflects growing tensions between German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats, junior partners in the ruling coalition, about issues ranging from Russia to Merkel’s open-door refugee policy.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats are jockeying for position with the Social Democrats ahead of next year’s federal election in Germany, when a weakened Merkel is expected to run for a fourth term.

“Europa has to deliver, and for that we need the partnership in the European Parliament between the EVP and the Social Democrats. But partnership means being able to trust that agreements will be honored,” Weber said.

Sources close to Schulz told Bild that he planned to fight to retain the job, noting that the conservatives already controlled two of the three top jobs, with Donald Tusk serving as president of the European Council and Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission.

A source close to Schulz told Bild that in a grand coalition, one party could not control everything. If Schulz had to resign, then Tusk would have to leave as well, the source said.

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→ Politico. 2016-07-13. Martin Schulz’s presidential agonies

What should have been relatively good news for Martin Schulz — an endorsement of sorts from Jean-Claude Juncker, who said the Parliament president should stick around for another term in the interest of European “stability” — has turned into another headache for the ambitious German as he plots his political future.

The statement from Juncker about his “friend” Schulz surprised and angered many in the European Parliament, who have been expecting the assembly’s president to step aside in January 2017. Doing so would fulfill the terms of a power-sharing deal between the Parliament’s two main political groups that Schulz agreed to when he began his current term as president in 2014.

But it would also force Schulz from a level of political prominence he has worked hard to cultivate. His post-Parliament president career choices, apart from entertaining potential offers from lecture agents, think tanks and investment banks, are fairly limited: to step down from the presidency and return to being an MEP, or try to find a role in German domestic politics.

The German option has proven challenging. The one attractive, immediate opening was to run as the Social Democrats’ (SPD) nominee for the chancellorship in Germany’s general elections in fall of 2017. Until a few months ago that’s a job no one envied the natural candidate for, current SPD head Sigmar Gabriel, given that polls suggest another defeat against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU.

The polls are slightly better now for the SPD, and as Die Welt reported Monday, suddenly Gabriel seems more interested in running himself. That means Schulz would have to try to push aside someone he calls a “friend,” and possibly run against other viable contenders.

That’s left Schulz to focus on keeping the Parliament presidency. He’s been working behind the scenes for months to convince colleagues that he should stay on in the role, arguing that it is important not to let all three EU presidencies be held by center-right politicians (European Council President Donald Tusk is, like Juncker, a member of the European People’s Party).

The Juncker comment, in a rollicking joint interview the two politicians gave to German magazine Spiegel last week, was the first real public acknowledgement of Schulz’s campaign to stay on, and was pitched as part of a need to show solidarity and preserve stability among EU leaders in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Rather than solidify Schulz’s ambition to stay on past his presidential sell-by date, the backing from Juncker may have helped fuel more opposition to him — even among the audience it was clearly intended to influence, the Commission chief’s own allies in the assembly’s center-right European People’s Party bloc. Instead of opening the door for Schulz to keep the post, it may have closed it further.

Only a few days before the Spiegel interview, Germans in the EPP said they would insist on the group taking over the Parliament presidency. The issue was the subject of a discussion among leading members of the EPP from several countries at a group meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday. After the Juncker comment was made public on Friday, EPP politicians reacted angrily and dug in further. They not only said they would hold Schulz to his word, they also criticized Juncker, one of their own, for overstepping his role as Commission president.

“What is important to us is to replace Schulz,” said Gunnar Hökmark, a prominent Swedish member of the EPP, the largest political group in the European Parliament. “This has to do with democracy.”

Added Alain Lamassoure, leader of the French delegation of the EPP and a potential contender to replace Schulz, “It is not the president of the Commission who elects the president of the Parliament. It is the Parliament who elects the president of the Commission.”

The EPP’s leader in the Parliament, Manfred Weber, told German paper Bild am Sonntag that while he appreciated Juncker’s “advice,” the party expected to stick to the agreement to take over the presidency in 2017. He also got in a little dig at Juncker, too. “It is for the European Parliament to elect its president as well as the Commission president though, not the other way around,” Weber said.

An EPP source said Juncker’s comments had prompted talk among some MEPs about collecting signatures for a motion of no confidence in Juncker if the Commission president “continues sticking out his neck” for Schulz.

Lamassoure said the move toward a censure motion was only a “threat” and wouldn’t go further. “It only reflects the reaction of irritation against that Spiegel joint interview.”

Others like Hökmark said Juncker should avoid having “a special relation” with Schulz on the question of leadership of the assembly.

“It is important to defend the integrity of the Commission and of the Parliament,” Hökmark said.

Another EPP source warned that if Schulz doesn’t stand behind the deal, “whatever other solution is found, it would have unpredictable consequences on the future not only of the Parliament in its functioning, but also on the European Commission itself, because it is supported by a political majority that would blow up.”

Schulz’s office did not respond to a request for comment about his plans for 2017 and beyond. But in recent months he has worked hard behind the scenes courting key MEPs in a bid to keep the Parliament presidency he has held since 2012. Many in the assembly acknowledge that during that time Schulz has helped boost the image of the Parliament as a political force.

But there is no shortage of contenders to replace him as president and — apart from members of his own Socialists & Democrats party, and apparently Juncker — little support for letting him stay in the post. Leaders of the other main political groups in the assembly, including the EPP and the Greens, oppose letting him have a third term, as do some key members of the centrist liberal bloc.

The selection process for the January 2017 election is likely to start in the fall. Under their power-sharing deal, the EPP and S&D blocs have agreed to support each other’s candidate for a two-and-a-half-year term.

The names of the potential EPP contenders for the presidency, including Antonio Tajani, Lamassoure and Mairead McGuinness, have been circulating in Parliament corridors for months, though apart from Lamassoure, all are coy about their efforts so far.

Herbert Reul and Angelika Niebler, two German EPP members, said their group would submit a name for a new EPP president in the fall. “Schulz committed himself to stay for only half of the legislature, so he would break his word if he didn’t do so,” Reul said.

Tajani said he did not want to comment on Juncker’s endorsement of Schulz because of “institutional correctness.”

→ Politico. 2016-07-13. German conservatives against another term for Martin Schulz

Martin Schulz should not seek another term as president of the European Parliament and allow a center-right MEP to take over the role, officials from Angela Merkel’s conservative party said.

Schulz, a German socialist, is widely expected to seek to stay in office after he is due to stand down at the end of the year. The two largest groups in the Parliament — the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats — traditionally take turns holding the presidency, splitting the five-year term of a Parliament in two.

He became Parliament president in January 2012 and was reappointed in 2014, being given a second term after losing out to the EPP’s Jean-Claude Juncker in the race to be European Commission president.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union believe it is time for a conservative to be at the head of the Parliament, Die Welt reported Wednesday.

Julia Klöckner, a member of the national board of the CDU, said: “The agreement said that there will be a change [in leader] after his term ends … Because Schulz is a man of honor, I assume that he will stick to the commitments made.”

The EPP and the Socialists reached an “unequivocal agreement” to alternate in the parliamentary chair, the CSU’s party leader in Bavaria, Gerda Hasselfeldt, said.