Pedro Sánchez plans to propose Teresa Ribera as head of the PSOE list for the European Parliament elections on June 9, a position from which he could later make the leap to the European Commission with a view to occupying a portfolio related to climate and energy. The solid track record of the vice president for the Energy Transition in this area would allow the Government to champion the defense of these policies in the next European legislature, in which the political focus will be on military spending and security, while at the national, in the campaign, exploits the confrontation with the climate ambiguity of the PP and the denialism of Vox.
Ribera (Madrid, 1969) was the first candidate that the president had in mind to assume both responsibilities, to be head of the European list and to occupy the place of Spain in the European Commission, but initially she claimed that she would prefer to continue being part of the Government, a a reaction that led Sánchez and the PSOE to explore other options among party figures with a European career behind them, such as the current Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, or Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, who has said publicly that He cannot leave his position early in the current circumstances, a reaction that once again turned all eyes on Ribera.
Thus, both Sánchez and the PSOE have returned to the starting point and to the conclusion that Ribera is the best possible candidate. “Now there is no talk of other possible options,” say sources close to the conversations. Ribera, they add, “embodies the leadership in climate action that the president has supported since he came to power” and which is seen as a factor of prosperity and competitiveness. It is not in Sánchez's hands which portfolio will be assigned to Spain in the next Commission (that decision will depend on the result of the European Commission and who presides over it) but, in his opinion, this bet is even "more important" at a time when the The advance of conservative forces and the far right calls into question the future of the European green agenda.
“Changing the paradigm of many decades is not something that can be resolved in a single mandate. The 'Von der Leyen commission' has made a lot of progress in the right direction but that will not be resolved in 5 or 10 years, this process of change needs to be consolidated," Ribera defended last Friday in Brussels, who does not believe that "it is written ” that these policies will be sidelined during the next legislature. “Another thing is that we need to pay much more attention to groups that may be threatened by such important changes in such a short time,” claimed the vice president, who for the first time revealed her interest in making the leap into European politics.
“The decisions about who heads the list or how the Government of Spain is representing in the European Commission transcend me,” but “working in Spain is working in Europe, and in one place or another I will be happy,” she said after declaring herself a “ “convinced Europeanist.” “In that campaign I see myself as an important asset of my Government and my party,” she said. “Fortunately there are many people in very solvent conditions” to do that work. “If I end up being the person who is lucky enough to develop those things, I will be happy to do so. And if it is someone else, I will help the person there,” she assured.
Asked about these statements, the President of the Government defined Ribera as “a woman who has the capabilities to achieve everything she sets her mind to,” in addition to “a reference at the national, international and multilateral level” on climate change, Sánchez said. , who also highlighted the ability to generate consensus and reach agreements that, in his opinion, the vice president has demonstrated during her five years in the executive. “All the proposals that she has made at the national and European level have gone ahead and have been good for all citizens,” she stressed at a press conference in Dublin.
The vice president's profile also adapts to the approach that the PSOE plans to give to the European election campaign, denouncing the alliances between the PP and Vox, and presenting itself as the containment dam of the extreme right as it did in the legislative elections of the 2023. The announcement of Ribera's candidacy at the head of the PSOE list for the European elections is imminent but will not be made before the Basque elections this Sunday, reports Juan Carlos Merino. The party will approve the European lists at its federal committee meeting on April 27.
55 days before the European elections, the Popular Party has not yet decided who will be its head of the list, whether it will be Dolors Montserrat again or whether it will bet, as was proposed a few months ago to wink at the countryside, on the former Minister of Agriculture Isabel García Tejerina. The grassroots of Podemos, for their part, already endorsed in February that their candidacy for the European Parliament will be headed by Irene Montero, while Yolanda Díaz has proposed that Estrella Galán, until now general director of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance, be head of Sumar list while the coalition formations define their respective candidates according to the previously agreed starting positions.
