The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said he is running as an MEP in June’s European elections and will stand down if elected, sparking a race to replace him or risk the role reverting to Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
“I have decided to run in the European elections in 2024,” Michel told Belgian media late on Saturday. The former Belgian prime minister has served as chief of the EU Council, the group of government leaders of the 27 EU member states, since 2019.
“If I get elected, I will take my seat [in the European parliament]. The European Council can anticipate and name a successor by end-June, early-July,” he said, adding that he would be running as the lead candidate for his Belgian centre-right Reformist Movement party.
The surprise decision means EU heads of government, who jointly appoint the council president, are under significant pressure to agree on a successor to Michel before 1 July, when Hungary is due to take over the rotating six-month council presidency.
Under EU rules, in the absence of a permanent council president, the post – which involves chairing council meetings and, with parliament, is central to forming the new commission – falls to the member state holding the rotating presidency.
That would leave Orbán – who has repeatedly been accused of holding European backing for Ukraine hostage over billions of euros of EU funding for Hungary frozen over a range of rule-of-law disputes – in effect running the council.
On Sunday, Michel reacted to criticism of his decision, saying: “I want to be clear that in any case, in June the decision was to be made on my successor and the parliament decision will be in July so it’s easy for the council to decide, to anticipate for my successor to enter into function.
“There are many tools if there is the political will to avoid Viktor Orbán.”
European leaders are due to meet on 17 June and 27-28 – after the five-yearly parliament elections, which take place across the bloc from 6-9 June – to begin wrangling over the bloc’s top jobs, including the commission and council presidents.
The wheeling and dealing would normally last months, culminating in the installation of the new commission in late November – which is when Michel’s term as council president was due to end. But leaders will now have much less time.
Some EU-watchers downplayed the significance of Michel’s move. Hosuk Lee-Makiyama of the European Centre for International Political Economy thinktank said it “merely moves the race for his successor six to nine months earlier”.
That would be “a nuisance for a couple of candidates who will be still stuck in national politics” he said, but it was “a tier-two job that is already earmarked for someone close to France and [on the] left”.
Others, however, condemned the council president’s decision as rash and egotistical. Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at the College of Europe, said the move was “not only self-centred but irresponsible”.
Opening the door to Orbán – who stands accused of breaching of EU law, but could find himself chairing council meetings – becoming council president even temporarily would be “even more problematic and irresponsible”, Alemanno said.
Michel had been “the least effective council president ever appointed” and his “constant battle of egos” with the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, had weakened the union on the international stage, he said. Von der Leyen has so far kept quiet on whether she intends to seek a second term.
Steven Van Hecke, a professor of European politics at the University of Leuven, told Belgian radio that Michel was clearly signalling that “his personal interests take precedence over the interests of the European institutions”.
Orbán was “the last thing anyone wants”, Van Hecke said. “There will now have to be a ‘job deal’ by the end of June, straight after the elections … It’s quite a challenge.”
The Dutch MEP, Sophie in’t Veld, accused Michel of abandoning ship. “The captain leaving the ship in the middle of a storm. If that is how little committed you are to the fate of the European Union, then how credible are you as a candidate?” she asked.
