Talking Europe interviews the boss of the largest and oldest group in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People's Party. Manfred Weber is a veteran of the EU assembly, having first been elected nearly twenty years ago, and he is an important player in German politics, in the conservative Christian Social Union. He missed out on the job of EU Commission president in 2019, but does not seem to have given up on that ambition. We start the discussion with the European elections scheduled for June 2024, which could shake up the bloc's political scene.
Weber sounds upbeat about the EPP's chances in next year's European elections. "We have seen success by our national friends, by the national pillars of the EPP. We’ve seen that in the north of Europe, in Finland, in Sweden, and in Ireland. We also have centre-right governments in two Baltic countries. And now, to add to that, we have the success of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Greece. In these times of uncertainty, of war, of economic challenges, I think our offer is attractive."
