Alain Berset, former president of the Swiss Confederation, and Indrek Saar, former Estonian culture minister and socialist party leader, are running alongside EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders for the Council of Europe secretary general post.
The Council of Europe, with 46 member countries, is an international organisation detached from the European Union, which promotes the protection of human rights democracy, and the rule of law across Europe. All EU countries are members, while Russia was expelled following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Reynders became the first candidate for the post earlier this week, following the Belgian liberal party congress Mouvement Réformateur (MR), as dwindling chances of securing a top job within EU institutions after the next European election in June pushed the commissioner to look for alternatives for his political career.
On Wednesday, the Belgian federal government confirmed Reynders’ candidacy for the post. Another prominent Belgian liberal, European Council President Charles Michel has announced he will run in the election for European Parliament in June and will leave his post in mid-July if he gets elected.
The names of the two new candidates, representing Estonia and Switzerland, were made public after the deadline for the CoE member countries to submit their nominees expired on Wednesday.
As a next step, the Committee of Ministers, composed of all the 46 foreign affairs ministers, will interview the three candidates in March and issue a recommendation with the preferred name to the Parliamentary Assembly, which will ultimately elect the secretary general in June.
The Swiss candidate, socialist politician Alain Berset, stepped down from Switzerland’s Federal Council in December. He had previously served as the home affairs minister since he joined the Council in 2012, and as the confederation’s president in 2018 and 2023.
“If you stayed longer than 12 years that would be too long, then you would consider yourself irreplaceable,” Berset said when announcing he would abandon national politics in June.
The third candidate, actor and socialist politician Indrek Saar, was Estonia’s minister of culture from 2015 to 2019 and the leader of the socialist party from 2019 to 2022.
He is currently a member of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, which may give him a head start in rallying support for his candidacy, despite Berset’s clear seniority advantage as Switzerland’s former president.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
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