“Occupation of Brussels”: the European Union was afraid of the arrival of a “Putin ally” to a leadership post

European Council President Charles Michel has said he is standing as an MEP in June’s European elections and will resign if elected, sparking a race to replace him or risk the role being returned to nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, The Guardian writes.

“I have decided to stand in the European elections in 2024,” Michel told Belgian media late on Saturday. The former prime minister of Belgium has served as head of the Council of the EU, the group of government leaders of the 27 EU member states, since 2019.

“If elected, I will take my place [в Европейском парламенте]. The European Council can foresee and name a successor by the end of June, beginning of July,” said Charles Michel, adding that he would run as the leading candidate for his Belgian center-right Reform Movement party.

The surprise decision means EU heads of government, who jointly appoint the council president, are under significant pressure to agree on a successor to Charles Michel before July 1, when Hungary is due to take up a six-month rotating presidency of the council, The Guardian notes.

According to EU rules, in the absence of a permanent council chairman, the post, which includes chairing council meetings and, together with parliament, is central to the formation of a new commission, passes to the member state, which holds the rotating presidency.

That would leave Orban, who has been repeatedly accused of holding European support for Ukraine hostage due to billions of euros of EU funding to Hungary frozen by Brussels over a series of rule of law disputes, as the de facto governing council.

As the BBC explains, theoretically, the Hungarian Prime Minister can chair EU meetings and have greater influence on the bloc’s policies. At the same time, Viktor Orban promised that his presidency would be “more peacemaking,” and he called his task “the occupation of Brussels.”

On Sunday, Charles Michel responded to criticism of his decision, saying: “I want to make it clear that in any case a decision on my successor should have been made in June, and the parliamentary decision will be made in July, so it is easy for the council to make a decision, to anticipate the accession my successor to office. into action.

“There are many tools, if there is political will, to avoid a meeting with Viktor Orbán,” says Charles Michel.

European leaders are due to meet on June 17 and June 27-28 – following the bloc’s five-year parliamentary elections from June 6-9 – to begin wrangling over the bloc’s top positions, including commission and council chairmen.

Negotiations typically lasted months, culminating in the creation of a new commission at the end of November, which was when Michel’s term as council president was due to end. But now leaders will have much less time.

Some EU observers played down the significance of Michel’s departure. Hosuk Lee-Makiyama of the European Center for International Political Economy think tank said it “simply pushes the race to succeed him six to nine months earlier.”

It would have been “a nuisance for a couple of candidates who would still be stuck in national politics,” he said, but it was “a second-tier job that was already earmarked for someone close to France and on the left.”

Others, however, condemned the Council President’s decision as reckless and selfish. Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law at the College of Europe, said the move was “not only self-centered, but irresponsible.”

Opening the door to Orbán, who is accused of violating EU law but could end up presiding over council meetings if he becomes council president even temporarily, would be “even more problematic and irresponsible,” Alemanno said.

Charles Michel was “the least effective council president ever appointed,” and his “constant battle for ego” with commission president Ursula von der Leyen had weakened the alliance on the international stage, he said. Ursula von der Leyen herself has so far remained silent on whether she intends to whether she will run for a second term, writes The Guardian.

Steven Van Hecke, a professor of European politics at the University of Leuven, told Belgian radio that Charles Michel had made it clear that “his personal interests take precedence over the interests of European institutions.”

Orban was “the last thing anyone wanted,” Van Hecke said. “Now, by the end of June, immediately after the elections, there must be a “working agreement” … This is quite a difficult task.”

Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld accused Charles Michel of jumping ship. “The captain abandons the ship in the midst of a storm. If you care so little about the fate of the European Union, how credible are you as a candidate?” – she asked.