BLITZ CAREER: David Sassoli’s election
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 6:32 am
He wasn’t Finnished: Orbán reiterated his sorrows about the state of the rule of law in Finland, which by now have been expressed in his speech, tweets by Kovács, in media outlets close to the government and by Hungary’s ambassador to the EU, who surprised colleagues a few weeks ago when he brought to their attention that not all is well in Helsinki, in Hungary’s (rather lonely) view. Anca Gurzu has the write-up.
as European Parliament president came as a surprise to many — including himself, he claimed in an interview with POLITICO. “It happened at the very last minute,” Sassoli told our own Maïa de la Baume. He made his pitch for the job to his own Socialists & Democrats group only the morning of the day special lead he was elected as their candidate, he insisted. Maïa has the story.
Flashback: Other, even more spontaneous candidates had no chance. Hungarian S&D MEP Klára Dobrev raised her hand during what three MEPs who participated described as a “lively” (one more went for “turbulent,” another one for “chaotic”) group meeting. Colleagues had encouraged her to run, according to several MEPs including herself, as “a strong symbol against the Eastern Europe’s populists,” Dobrev said.
She eventually lost in an open vote against Sassoli. Ballot boxes were nowhere to be found, according to the MEPs’ accounts, so they went for show of hands — Sassoli won by some 18 votes. The ballot happened just around the deadline for nominations to Parliament’s administration on Tuesday July 2 at 10 p.m., with the election foreseen during Wednesday’s plenary.
as European Parliament president came as a surprise to many — including himself, he claimed in an interview with POLITICO. “It happened at the very last minute,” Sassoli told our own Maïa de la Baume. He made his pitch for the job to his own Socialists & Democrats group only the morning of the day special lead he was elected as their candidate, he insisted. Maïa has the story.
Flashback: Other, even more spontaneous candidates had no chance. Hungarian S&D MEP Klára Dobrev raised her hand during what three MEPs who participated described as a “lively” (one more went for “turbulent,” another one for “chaotic”) group meeting. Colleagues had encouraged her to run, according to several MEPs including herself, as “a strong symbol against the Eastern Europe’s populists,” Dobrev said.
She eventually lost in an open vote against Sassoli. Ballot boxes were nowhere to be found, according to the MEPs’ accounts, so they went for show of hands — Sassoli won by some 18 votes. The ballot happened just around the deadline for nominations to Parliament’s administration on Tuesday July 2 at 10 p.m., with the election foreseen during Wednesday’s plenary.