The race for European Commission president got a bit more interesting over the weekend as leaders from Europe’s left, including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, reportedly backed Jean-Claude Juncker’s candidacy, setting up a showdown with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposes Juncker.
It is a high-stakes dispute, given that the European Commission presidency is one of the most important institutions in the European Union, empowered with proposing legislation and representing the EU abroad. A meeting in Paris on Saturday among leaders from France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which resulted in their joint decision to back Juncker, has further isolated Cameron and his anti-Juncker drive.
But Cameron has so far been steadfast in his opposition to Juncker, detailing his case against the candidate in an op-ed published earlier this month. The selection of Juncker, he wrote, “would shift power from national governments to the European Parliament without voters’ approval.”