The 2014 Party of European Socialists presidential primaries is the selection process by which the members of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and will choose the PES candidate for President of the European Commission ahead of the 2014 European elections.
Partly due to reluctance among some national delegations, the Party of European Socialists (PES) did not present any candidate for the post of Commission President to the European elections of June 2009. Following the disappointing results of PES member parties during these elections, however, the European People's Party (EPP) remained the largest party in the European Parliament, and their candidate José Manuel Durão Barroso was re-elected as Commission President. In light of this, the PES Congress of Prague of December 2009 made the decision that PES would designate its own candidate before the 2014 European elections.[1]
A few months afterwards, in June 2010, several PES supporters launched an online campaign for a PES primary[2] which rapidly gained momentum on social networks. Led by Desmond O'Toole, José Reis Santos and Arthur Colin, the campaign managed to convince the PES Council meeting in Warsaw in December 2010 to set up Working Group "Candidate 2014" in charge of proposing a procedure and timetable for a "democratic" and "transparent" designation process. The Council accepted to "bring on board all PES member parties and all levels within the parties" in the selection process.[3]
One year later, basing on the working group's conclusions, a PES Council gathering in Brussels in November 2011 decided that PES would designate its candidate for Commission president through primaries taking place in January 2014 in each of its member parties and organisations,[4] before a ratification of the results by an Extraordinary PES Congress in Rome in February 2014.
The general procedure of the PES primary is detailed in the PES Resolution "Selecting our common candidate in 2014" adopted by the PES Council on 24 November 2011.[5]
Six months before the process is launched, the timetable of the primary will be readjusted by the PES Presidency according to the exact date decided by the Council of the EU for the 2014 European elections.
| Delegates | |||
| S&D Group in the European Parliament | 28 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | SPD | 28 | |
| Spain | PSOE | 27 | |
| United Kingdom | Labour | 22 | |
| SDLP | 2 | ||
| France | PS | 23 | |
| Italy | DS | 20 | |
| PS | 3 | ||
| Poland | SLD | 17 | |
| UP | 3 | ||
| Romania | PSD | 14 | |
| Czech Republic | CSSD | 11 | |
| Greece | PASOK | 11 | |
| Portugal | PS | 11 | |
| Belgium | PS | 6 | |
| sp.a | 5 | ||
| Netherlands | PvdA | 10 | |
| Hungary | MSzP | 8 | |
| MSzDP | 2 | ||
| Sweden | SAP | 9 | |
| Austria | SPÖ | 9 | |
| Bulgaria | BSP | 8 | |
| Slovakia | SMER | 8 | |
| Denmark | SD | 7 | |
| Ireland | Labour | 7 | |
| Lithuania | LSDP | 7 | |
| Norway | DNA | 7 | |
| Finland | SDP | 6 | |
| Malta | MLP | 5 | |
| Cyprus | EDEK | 4 | |
| Estonia | SDE | 4 | |
| Luxembourg | LSAP | 4 | |
| Slovenia | SD | 4 | |
| Latvia | LSDSP | 3 | |
| PES Group in the Committee of the Regions | 3 | ||
| Young European Socialists (Youth organisation) | 3 | ||
| PES Women (Women's organisation) | 3 | ||
| Foundation for European Progressive Studies (Political foundation) | 3 | ||
| PES President | 1 | ||
| PES Secretary general | 1 | ||
| Total | 355 | ||
First, a nomination process will determine which candidates are eligible for the primary. It follows three steps:
Anyone meeting the nomination criteria can stand as a candidate:
- Be nominated by a PES full member party or organisation.
- Be supported by 15% of PES full member parties or organisations (nominating party or organisation included), including his/her party or a party from his/her country if he/she is not a member of a PES full member party.
- A party can only nominate or support one potential candidate.
These criteria will allow for a maximum of six candidates. In November 2011, the PES had 33 full member parties and 5 full member organisations. In these conditions, a candidate would need the support from 6 parties or organisations: one nominating her/him, 5 other supporting.
The PES Presidency will meet to close the nomination process, check candidacies, make the candidacies public, and set up an electoral committee composed of representatives from each potential candidate to scrutinise the fairness of the process.
Each party or organisation determines its own voting process according to its traditions. Nevertheless, they will have to respect the following principles:
The results of the votes of member parties and organisations will first be aggregated at the PES Congress. to consolidate them, the votes of full member parties and organisations will be weighted on the basis of the breakdown of delegates in the PES Congress established according to the PES Statutes. If a candidate obtains an absolute majority of the weighted votes, he or she will be ratified by the PES Congress.
If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, a second round will be held between the two first candidates in the PES Congress by open ballot.
From November 2011 on, several leaders of France's Socialist Party have advocated for an open primary to determine the French vote on the PES candidate. They included former Prime Minister of France Michel Rocard and former vice-president of the European Parliament Pierre Moscovici.[7]
Mid-2013, the following leaders were considered to be possible presidential PES candidates for 2014:[8]