Efforts to restart the motor of European integration, already under threat from an expected populist surge at this week’s EU elections, face another challenge from infighting over Brussels’ top jobs.
Eurosceptics and nationalists are expected to gain seats in the EU parliament when results are announced on Sunday, but mainstream conservative, social democratic and liberal parties are still set to outmatch them.
The new majority, however, will not be able to return to business as usual until the union’s national leaders agree on a new head of the European Commission, to replace Jean-Claude Juncker in November.
And here, their fragile unity will come under immediate pressure, senior Brussels insiders and expert observers agree.
“The sovereignists will remain marginalised at a European level by the parliamentary victory of pro-European forces,” said former Italian premier Enrico Letta, chairman of the Jacques Delors Foundation.
“But we must be realists. There’s a risk that this result will fall apart immediately if the debate about nominations begins with vetoes, obstruction and reprisals,” he told AFP.
The first clash is expected to erupt on Tuesday, when the 28 EU national…
