It's looking more and more like Blair is a Trojan Horse. The other two candidates are from the EPP. Sarkozy, also from the EPP, promotes Blair, nominally PES but at heart EPP.
Who is in the running for the four top EU jobs? Has the EPP claimed the Council by default? Will they install a faux-PES in the Council so they can take another job elsewhere? The political division would probably end up being EPP 2 jobs, PES 1 job, ALDE 1 job. We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
According to this SPIEGEL article (the abridged English version of a German original unfortunately behind the subscription wall), the odds don't look good for Bliar, who has more enemies:
But numerous Social Democrats and most Christian Democrats, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, aren't as impressed. On Monday, the Daily Telegraph also reported that senior allies of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown were plotting to wreck Blair's ambitions for the post out of concern that his appointment could reignite old divisions within his Labour Party.
Further candidates discussed are Belgium's Verhofstadt, Poland's Kwaśniewski and Aznar, though they note Aznar has the same problem with the incumbent PM's opposition as Bliar... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen could be a candidate for either the Commission or the Council. Bottom line is that the PES wins the 2009 elections (a few more European governments would also be helpful).
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
