Two Italians for a perch… And only one winner

(BRUXELLES2 in Strasbourg) Monday (January 16) was a thrilling day for those who followed it from start to finish. And it took the four scheduled rounds to decide between the two main candidates: the Italian for the Christian Democrats, Antonio Tajani, and the Italian Gianni Pittella for the Socials and Democrats (S&D). A TV series playwright couldn't have done better. It contained all the necessary ingredients for a good novels  : alliances, betrayal, internal settling of scores, promise of revenge, recomposition and... one (almost) happy end.

A very open race

The Social Democrats having broken the grand coalition agreement (1) which had marked the first part of this mandate (like other mandates), the race was more open than usual. Five other candidates were in the running, having almost no chance of being elected, and intended above all to make up for one or other of the main candidates: the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt for the Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) , his Flemish nationalist compatriot N-VA Helga Stevens for the conservatives (ECR), the Briton Jean Lambert for the Greens, the Italian Eleonora Forenza for the left (GUE/NLG), the Romanian Laurentiu Rebega for the extreme right (ENL ). The last group present in Parliament (EFDD), made up of British Europhobes from UKIP and Italians from the 5 Star Movement, had no candidate.

A wedding at dawn

9 a.m.... Parliament is in full swing. A new one crosses the spans. The Liberals' candidate, the former Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, is stepping down. He signed, in the night, an agreement with the "Blues" of the EPP. In exchange for his support, he obtained a few sugars, three vice-presidencies and the presidency of the Conference of Presidents, and a program agreement, in particular the promise to see a Convention convened. " The only advantage of this agreement is that we will all finish early tonight. » quips the German Ska Keller, co-president of the Greens group. The results of the first round have not yet fallen. But no one ventures to make such a clear-cut prognosis.

Confidence

11 a.m.: We are still waiting for the results. MEPs from the European People's Party group arrive in the hemicycle. Confident. Like Caesar, Antonio Tajani walks happily among his colleagues. He waves with his hand, distributes hugs in abundance, multiplies the selfies... A very Roman little show. The group's president, Manfred Weber, is even generous. " We are trying in the European Parliament to organize a constructive pro-European majority because it is not a question here of personal confrontations but of finding solutions. This agreement does not exclude anyone. We invite everyone to join us “, continues the German CDU. A foot call to the Social Democrats. The results of the first round are encouraging. Tajani collects more votes, with 274 votes. Almost 100 votes separate him from his competitor, Gianni Pittella. He only needs some 80 votes to cross the airlock of the absolute majority (2).

• Results of the first round: 718 votes including 36 draws. Absolute majority: 342. Tajani - EPP (274), Pittella - S&D (183), Stevens - ECR (77 votes), Lamberts - Greens (56 votes), Forenza - GUE (50 votes), Rebega - ENL (43 votes) .

The doubt

14 p.m. It's the second round. The candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), Antonio Tajani, comes first. But he can't take off. With 287 votes, the Italian failed to muster enough votes to win. The candidate of the Social and Democrats (S&D), Gianni Pittella, for his part obtained 200 votes, ie 17 more than in the first round (2). Is this the index of a rise? Among the Socialists, we believe in everything. " It's a good sign. Everything is still possible. »

• Results of the second round: 725 votes including 34 draws. Absolute majority: 346. Tajani - EPP (287, +13), Pittella - S&D (200, +17), Stevens - ECR (66, -11), Lambert - Greens (51, -5), Forenza - GUE (42 , -8), Rebega - ENL (45, +2)

A head in balance

The third round is only scheduled for 17:30 p.m. The political groups then multiply meetings and confabulations. In the corridors, rumors come and go. Everyone goes fishing for votes. Pivot of the negotiation, the Conservative group of the ECR haggled over its support. Pittella says he is ready to accept anything to obtain the necessary votes. In particular, he offers to fire Guy Verhofstadt, whose federalist ambition makes him an outcast in London, from his post as Parliament negotiator for Brexit. Rabies is very present in the "roses". They can't stomach the disdain with which Verhofstadt has treated their offer of alliance. An offer that would have never been submitted to his group ". At ALDE, we retort that the " socialists offered positions. But no content ».

Auctions

Tempted by a rapprochement with the Christian Democrats of the EPP, the Conservatives seized their chance. An ironic luxury for the British Tories, for whom it is normally the last election in this hemicycle that they will leave by 2019. They are raising the stakes. Under pressure from her group, the Belgian Helga Stevens, however, maintains her candidacy.

17 p.m. The deputies go back to the vote for a third round. Then the hemicycle empties. The time of the counting, the race for negotiations resumes. Around 17:30 p.m., the ECR group publishes a press release. It calls into question the ALDE-EPP agreement, many aspects of which " represent policies that have failed in the past ". British Tory Syed Kamall, the boss of ECR, asks Antonio Tajani to " deviate from this statement ". Tajani doesn't procrastinate for long.

 Barely thirty minutes later, he replies: OK, and throws any agreement overboard. It undertakes, " as President of the European Parliament, to be neutral, at the service of all Europeans, and I focus on what really matters: security, migration and employment ". In his own camp, the news caused a stir. " It is far too late. This should have been done before the third vote, some believe. Especially since the decision was not taken as a group but by Tajani's team.

Still no white smoke

19 p.m. The counting of the third vote ends. The result does not live up to expectations. Tajani misses the step. Once again. A few Conservative votes go to him. But very little and not enough to make a difference. It caps. 55 votes are still missing to reach an absolute majority. Boredom wins. Everyone feels that the promised free evening has begun. And that it takes a last and final round to decide between the two Italians.

• Third round: 719 votes including 29 draws. Absolute majority: 346. Tajani - EPP (291, +4), Pittella - S&D (199, -1), Stevens - ECR (58, -8), Lambert - Greens (53, +2), Forenza - GUE (45 , +3), Rebega - ENL (44, -1).

The moment of truth

19:10 p.m. Negotiations start again. Appointment is given at 20 p.m. to proceed to the fourth round, where only the two candidates with the most votes are in the running: Antonio Tajani (EPP) and Gianni Pittella (S&D). An Italo-Italian battle, between the Roman and the Lauriati. " It's time for truth" drop a deputy. It's historic. This had only happened once in the history of the European Parliament, in 1982. In the EPP, the heads are clearly dark. Few venture into this dangerous terrain that is a press room, where the cutthroat question can arise without warning. Some colleagues, for whom this seems to be a first time in Parliament, ask for a biography of Pittella already ready. In case...

The outcome

Silence falls... It's 19:35 p.m. Suddenly the news falls. " It's done...” The curators of ECR ​​have just announced, via Twitter, their rallying. They will support Antonio Tajani “ after a series of political commitments “, in other words of concessions, of the Italian.

...and relief

20 p.m. The hemicycle fills up for the last time of the day. Antonio Tajani can savor, fully, this time, his satisfaction. His tactical sense paid off. The matinee scenes are back in the news...hugs, hugs and smiles from ear to ear. Gianni Pittella is struggling to cope. At 20:50 p.m., the results filter to the press. Ten minutes later, the official result falls. The Italian of Forza Italy, close to Berlusconi, Antonio Tajani, is elected to the presidency of the European Parliament, clearly. He is ahead of his competitor by nearly 70 votes. But he misses, by 3 votes, the podium of the absolute majority. 80 deputies abstained. A figure easily attributable to the far right, which has 40 deputies in Marine Le Pen's Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF) group and 42 in Britain's Nigel's Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFD) group. Faring. His opponent almost managed to fill up the votes on the left but hardly beyond. " Today begins a new era » claims Tajani in front of the press. It's 21:30 p.m.... the day is over.

• Fourth round: 713 votes including 6 draws. Relative majority (absolute majority: 354). Tajani - EPP (351, +60), Pittella - S&D (282, +83), and 80 abstentions.

A fairly logical result when you see the profile of the European assembly where the right is in the majority (but divided) and altogether quite expected. But it took a certain number of turns and a certain dramaturgy for this reality to take shape (3). This result has the merit of a certain clarity: it rejects the Social Democrats in the opposition with a clearer majority bloc which is no longer the grand coalition (dear to the Germans). But an orange-blue, liberal/Christian democrat alliance (more classic in Nordic or southern countries).

The battle is not quite over... After the rather formal vice-presidency election on Tuesday, the "real" battle will resume, more muted for the chairs of the parliamentary committees and in particular of the future committee special on terrorism ( Towards a special committee on “terrorism” in the European Parliament?). Between Christian Democrats and Liberals, on the one hand, Socialists, Leftists and Greens on the other, will the knives go back into the sheaths or will they come out on the occasion of a new dirty trick? Following the next number...

(Leonor Hubaut)

(1) At the end of an agreement between the two largest parties in Parliament (EPP and S&D), the five-year presidency had been divided in two: first the Social Democrats for the first two and a half years ( with Martin Schulz) and then the Christian Democrats (PPE) for the next two and a half years. But the Socialists broke this agreement, believing that the three leading positions in the European sphere (European Commission, European Council, European Parliament) would be held by a supporter of the EPP, which did not reflect the general political balance or the spirit of the grand coalition.

(2) To be elected, a candidate must win an absolute majority of the votes. expressed, i.e. 50% plus one vote (Art. 16 of the Rules). Blank or invalid ballot papers are not counted for the calculation of this required majority. But abstentions are.

(3) B2 had not waited for the final result of the battle to publish the portrait of the president of parliament, from 17 p.m. Read : A supporter of European defense at the head of the European Parliament