Paris and Berlin appear on a collision course over the replacement of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European commission after poor results for the centre-right in the European elections damaged Angela Merkel’s choice for the post. The Socialists and Democrats group’s 191 seats five years ago fell to 145 despite surprisingly strong results in Spain and the Netherlands, where they topped the polls. The member states choice for commission president also requires endorsement by a majority in the parliament. The European commission’s German secretary-general, Martin Selmayr, insisted on Monday that there was no reason for the main political groups to do anything but follow the spitzenkandidat “lead candidate” process. Smarting from the fallout, Tsipras said he would call snap elections, as New Democracy promptly demanded his resignation saying he no longer had a popular mandate.

Source: The Guardian May 27, 2019 15:55 UTC