The CSU politician Manfred Weber has been elected chairman of the Christian Democratic European People’s Party (EPP). As expected, delegates at a two-day convention in Rotterdam on Tuesday voted for the 49-year-old, who was the sole candidate to succeed Donald Tusk. Weber has been leading the EPP group in the European Parliament since 2014.
Weber faces the task of leading the alliance of 81 differently profiled member parties to greater unity and to the European elections in 2024. In the European Parliament, the conservative party family holds a quarter of the seats. It is the head of state or government in seven of the 27 EU countries.
In September, Weber gave up his candidacy for the post of President of the European Parliament and instead stated that he wanted to chair the EPP. The Bavarian, who is conservative in terms of values, relies on market-based incentives when it comes to climate protection and on a strict course in migration policy.
Outgoing EPP leader Tusk called Weber a “man of compromises, but never when it comes to principles”. Weber “always stood on the right side of things with the calm courage that is so typical of him”.
