N1’s Ivana Dragicevic spoke to Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, on Wednesday in Helsinki, where members of Europe’s conservative parties have come together to choose their candidate for President of the European Commission ahead of the May 2019 European elections.

Weber, an MEP and member of the conservative Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), is running for candidacy against Alexander Stubb of Finland’s National Coalition Party.

The congress of EPP members is taking place ahead of European Parliament elections, to be held in May 2019. Currently the EPP is the largest party in the European Parliament, holding 219 seats in the 751-seat assembly, but has seen its support across Europe dwindling amid a rise in populist rhetoric.

Mr Weber, how are you satisfied with this debate, you were so energetic, you had basically the same messages for the new EPP, for the energetic EPP, and for the respect for the rule of law in this situation in Europe?

“The European People’s Party is united, we have a clear idea of what we want to achieve and we want to go out, after we’ve elected our top candidate, and convince people together with our national parties, Mr Plenkovic for example, to be strong, to be convincing, to try and open a new chapter for this continent, and my main idea behind this is to reconnect to the citizens, so the people all over the continent feel connected to what is going on on the European level.”

You’re the biggest party in Europe, you’re the most important in these circumstances. you’ve mentioned that you as Christian Democrats have to directly address the fears of the people.

“The starting point for politics, also for European politics, are the concerns of the people. And what are they? It’s about migration – people feel we cannot control our borders in a proper way, and that’s why the EPP is ready to control the border, to identify those who are illegally crossing our borders, (who) will be immediately sent back. The EPP takes into account concerns about the economic dimension, because in some areas of Europe, people feel like second-class Europeans, in their living conditions, in their healthcare system, and we don’t accept this. We want to work for a Europe which is really united on our fundamental things like living conditions. Only to give you 2 examples – we have to start from the concerns of the people.”

You talk about the fear, you cannot behave like Donald Trump in this situation, Europe has to prove its basic values in that sentiment.

“We see all over Europe populism and extremism rising, and that’s why our main answer is: we fight against extremism and… we fight with optimism. So, we did for example a proper management of the euro crisis. Today we have an economic positive development all over Europe, not perfect, but it is good development all over Europe, and it is the heritage we can say we have in our hands, because EPP did it in the last years, and that’s why we start our politics first of all with our record of what we’ve achieved in the last years and that is not so bad. We have still a lot to do, but it is not that bad.”

Are you personally afraid of your, maybe new responsibilities from tomorrow, and from the next elections in May?

“I like responsibility, when I have a team behind me. It’s not about me, it’s about us. Always in politics, it’s about forming a family approach that everyone can contribute to, and listen to each other. That is my way to do European politics and I think that is more needed than ever before, because Europe sees so much splits and we have to overcome the splits, we have to reunite our Europe.”

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