By Martin Banks - 10th January 2007
The newly-elected leader of the European People’s Party today conceded an underlying conflict exists within the group between MEPs from new and old member states.
French farmer Joseph Daul won Tuesday’s election after attracting the support of 134 deputies compared with 115 for his main challenger, Swedish MEP Gunnar Hokmar.
Two other candidates, an Italian and Austrian, were eliminated in earlier rounds.
Daul, 59 and an MEP since 1999, admitted the vote was much closer than had been widely anticipated.
“I’ll be frank, Tuesday was a very difficult day for me and it was a close run thing. Contrary to what some had predicted, the result was not in the bag.”
He enjoyed the backing of the numerically-strong German and French MEPs in the 277-strong EPP, the assembly’s biggest group, but denied there had been any sort of informal deal to secure his election.
But, with many of the British and new member state EPP members thought to have voted for Hokmar, Daul admitted that within the group some divisions exist which need addressing.
Daul described himself as both an optimist and realist.
“While I am from the 1968 generation, our friends from the East clearly want something different, to move faster than those from ‘old’ member states."
“This is one of the lessons to emerge from this election campaign and demonstrates the magnitude of the task facing us. It shows we have to do more in order to better understand each other.”
Daul, who will serve as leader until at least the 2009 European elections, said his first priority is to ensure that the man he replaces, German MEP Hans-Gert Poettering, is elected parliament’s president in Strasbourg next Tuesday.
At his first news conference since his election, Daul, who comes from the UMP party of French president Jacques Chirac, said that, on the controversial issue of Turkey joining the EU, he favours a “privileged partnership”.
On Strasbourg, Daul said he strongly supports his hometown’s right to continue hosting parliamentary sessions.
A “major” work programme facing the EPP over the next couple of years includes reviving the stalled EU constitution, he said.
Daul, who meets German leader Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday, also said he hoped to dissuade disaffected UK Conservative EPP members from leaving the group in 2009, as they have indicated, while adding that “both sides need to move a bit on this.”
A fluent German speaker, Daul speaks very little English but said he has already started taking English lessons.
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