GEAB 135

The new face of tomorrow’s Europe matches the faces of tomorrow’s Europeans. Among the latter is one we wish to present to you: Manfred Weber, the very petulant 46-year-old German MEP of the “small” Bavarian Christian party CSU, who could very well be Juncker’s successor at the head of the European Commission soon.

Why are we looking at him, while other more known and recognised candidates, including Bas Eickhout and Ska Keller for the European Greens, or figures such as Frans Timmermans (PSE) or Margrethe Vestager (ALDE), could arouse at least as much interest?

Although Manfred Weber ranks second among the most influential MEPs in the European institutions,[1] he remains almost unknown, even for his own Bavarian electorate (let alone his European voters in general)! [2]

Being a member of the EPP Group since 2004, nominated by the members of his group as Spitzenkandidat for the European Commission since November 2018, the political career of Weber has been confined to the benches and corridors of the European institutions. He has no national mandates under his belt, he is certainly not a polyglot (he speaks only German and English) and he does not have the stature of his predecessors, all of whom came from government ranks.