NICOSIA — Manfred Weber, the European People’s Party (EPP) candidate for European Commission president, gave a crowd of about 500 diners in Cyprus a first glimpse at his election campaign Thursday evening.
Beyond classic EPP issues such as supporting free trade and the single market, and his own belief that the EU should end accession talks with Turkey, he vowed to “make a political giant out of the economic giant” that is the EU. How? By pushing hard to move to majority voting on foreign policy in the Council, for one.
Weber claimed “it wasn’t hard to decide where to start,” to his crowd at the headquarters of Cyprus’ Democratic Rally, the country’s (and its President Nicos Anastasiades’) EPP party. Democratic Rally was the first EPP member party to voice its support for Weber’s candidacy for the Commission presidency back in September.
The political payoff for Cyprus is obvious. “Cypriot issues are EU issues,” Weber said. “The key element is to fight for the reunification” of the divided island, he added, promising “we’re all Cypriots.”
The dinner was organized at one week’s notice, according to Democratic Rally officials, as part of the party’s effort to get two MEPs elected in May. The party won just one of Cyprus’ six seats in the 2014 election.
Weber also tested out cancer — which affects one-third of European families — as a campaign theme.
The EPP’s Spitzenkandidat said he wants the EU to work together on “an ambitious approach on medicine research,” because “nobody thinks that one single country can win the fight” against the disease. He told the audience that experts and researchers told him that “if we combine our money and resources, we actually can cure cancer.”