The May 2014 Vote: Europeanising the “European” Elections

For the first time, on 28 April 2014, the European party families’ candidates for the post of the European Commission president battled it out at a presidential TV debate, in a bid to raise their profiles ahead of the May European elections. Yet such efforts to boost participatory democracy are hampered by governments keen to maintain their leeway to nominate the candidate for president. Warsaw, too, is likely to be wondering whether to accept this encroachment on its prerogatives and buy into the practice. The answer is that it should avoid antagonising the European Parliament in the final stage of the campaign, and instead exploit the personalisation of the election to lay better foundations for future talks on the incoming Commission’s legislative programme.