European socialists to oppose Barroso's re-election

Jun 9, 2009, 13:57 GMT

Berlin - The socialist grouping in the European Parliament will oppose the re-election of European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, the group's leader said on Tuesday after Barroso confirmed that he was running for re-election.

'Mr Barroso stands for a policy which we opposed in the (European Parliament) elections. I cannot recommend at the moment that my fraction supports Mr Barroso for a second term,' Martin Schulz told Wednesday's edition of the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.

At the weekend, centre-right parties handed a stinging defeat to socialists in European Union elections, forming by far the largest bloc in the European Parliament.

On Tuesday, the conservative Barroso told journalists in Brussels that he was ready to run for a second five-year term as the head of the EU's executive - a move which would require the backing of a majority of EU governments and the parliament.

Barroso has already won the backing of EU heavyweights including Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He is widely tipped to win formal re-appointment at a summit in Brussels on June 18-19.

However, his parliamentary approval could prove more challenging.

The mainstream conservative and liberal parties in the parliament control 343 seats, short of the 369 needed for an absolute majority.

If the 162 socialist deputies oppose Barroso en bloc, that would leave the Portuguese politician looking for support among eurosceptic, Green, nationalist or extreme left- or right-wing groups, who have been less than vocal in his support in the past.