Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has confirmed his interest in taking over the presidency of the conservative ECR group, currently held by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Morawiecki, who served as head of the Polish government until his conservative PiS (ECR) party lost power last year to a pro-EU coalition led by current Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has not held a significant post since stepping down as prime minister in December 2023.
He was asked by Italian media at the ECR summit in Dubrovnik if he had ambitions to succeed Meloni as ECR president.
“I do, of course I do,” replied Morawiecki.
On the possible change in the leadership of the ECR, he said that “it is possible, but nothing has been decided yet”.
“Everything is in the hands of Giorgia Meloni, who is an excellent leader of the ECR. We will discuss the matter [of succession] in the near future,” he stressed.
Morawiecki added that he had invited Meloni to Warsaw, where the two had already met in December 2022, when both were prime ministers of their countries.
“We spoke three days ago in Brussels, she gave me some hope that she might come, but we’ll see whether this will be possible.”
Following this year’s European elections in June, PiS MEPs turned down an offer from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to join his new Patriots of Europe group, opting instead to accept Meloni’s offer to remain in the ECR.
Second Pole after Tusk to take leadership of an EU group
Euractiv has previously reported that Morawiecki is said to be vying for the leadership of the ECR party, which would be a comfort to him if he is not chosen as his PiS party’s candidate in next year’s presidential elections.
If he takes over the group’s leadership, he would not be the first Pole to lead an EU group. Donald Tusk, who replaced Morawiecki as Polish prime minister in 2023, became president of the European People’s Party (EPP) after stepping down as president of the European Council in 2019.
He held the post until 2021, when he returned to Poland to take over his old party, Civic Platform (PO, EPP), and led it to electoral success two years later.
Morawiecki taking the ECR leadership “would be a good idea,” PiS MEP Bogdan Rzońca told Euractiv Poland.
“All the more so as Meloni, being the prime minister of Italy, has a great deal of work to manage in her own country, while the affairs of the European party require considerable time and attention, given that we have another European election in a few years,” he added.
ECR being strong “is even more important now, as other groups are beginning to agree with us that it’s essential to be realistic, rather than clinging to certain lofty ideas,” according to Rzońca.
With 78 MEPs, the ECR is currently the fourth-largest group in the European Parliament. In the new legislature, it has lost its position as the largest right-wing group to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s new Patriots for Europe group.
Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and PiS have the two biggest national representations in the ECR, with 24 and 20 MEPs, respectively.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
