Liberals elect Strack-Zimmermann as top candidate for European elections
Published: Wednesday, Mar 20th 2024, 19:51
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Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chairwoman of the Defense Committee, is leading the liberal Alde party family into the European elections as the top candidate. Delegates of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe elected the 66-year-old FDP politician at a parliamentary group congress in Brussels on Wednesday, as the party announced on X (formerly Twitter).
Strack-Zimmermann thanked the European Liberals for their unanimous nomination of her as lead candidate. "The Liberals are firmly anchored in the heart of Europe. We know that we fight together, not against each other," she wrote on X.
She wants to campaign for a Europe of security, prosperity and freedom, said the FDP defense politician at the parliamentary group congress. "The European Union must become more independent and more resilient. We must defend ourselves against the autocrats of the world - outside and inside the European Union."
The Liberals are not just one European party family like the Christian Democrats or Social Democrats. Both the FDP MEPs and the MEPs of the Free Voters in the EU Parliament are part of the Renew liberal group. However, while the FDP belongs to Alde, the Free Voters joined the European Democratic Party in 2015.
In the European elections in June, the citizens of the 27 EU countries will elect the members of the European Parliament. According to the Spitzenkandidaten principle, the post of President of the Commission will then go to the leading candidate of the winning party. Strack-Zimmermann's nomination pits her against Ursula von der Leyen, who has been nominated as the lead candidate of the Christian Democratic EPP.
©Keystone/SDA
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