The vice president of the European Parliament, Katarina Barley, is to lead Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) in the 2024 European elections, dpa learned from party sources on Monday.
Barley was unanimously nominated by the party executive committee.
In German politics, leaders are appointed for election campaigns who are not necessarily at the top of the party.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also from the SPD.
Barley also ran as Germany’s top candidate for the SPD in the 2019 European elections.
At that time, the SPD achieved its worst result ever with 15.8 per cent.
In Brussels and Strasbourg, Barley has acted relatively quietly over the past four years.
As vice president of the European Parliament, she is automatically a member of the Bureau, which decides on financial, organizational, and administrative matters.
In addition, she can be mandated by Parliament President Roberta Metsola to represent the Parliament on official occasions.
Politically, the 54-year-old has campaigned for decisive action against violations of the rule of law in the European Union.
For example, she has called for a hard line against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was accused of restricting press freedom in his country.
Before her career at the European Parliament, Barley, a lawyer, held positions as German justice minister, family minister, and SPD secretary general.
She worked as a research assistant at Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court for several years.
“I am a European through and through,’’ Barley asserts on her website.
This is mainly due to her family history. Born in Cologne, her mother is German, and her father is British.
She studied in Paris among other places.
