Strasbourg, France (dpa) - Former Finnish premier Alexander Stubb announced Tuesday he will run for lead candidate of the dominant centre-right group in the European Parliament, with his eye on becoming European Commission president in 2019.Parliamentary elections, slated for May 2019, come at a time when the European Union faces tough challenges. These include Britain‘s EU exit, the rise of populism, migration, and threats to the geopolitical order under US President Donald Trump. Stubb opened his pitch by warning that European values, including the rule of law and liberal democracy, are "under attack" from outside and within. "If we don‘t stick to our values ... we are nothing," he said.His European People‘s Party will decide on November 8 in Helsinki who it will select as its party list candidate to run in the parliamentary elections. To date, the only other EPP candidate is Manfred Weber of Germany‘s Christian Social Union. If the EPP again wins a majority of seats in the parliament, its lead candidate would likely succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president. EU member states would have to approve, followed by a vote in parliament.Stubb has taken a strong line against the populist policies of Poland, Hungary and Italy. In contrast to Weber, he has suggested that the EPP expel Hungary‘s far-right Fidesz Party from its parliamentary family.He reasserted that position on Tuesday, saying that the EPP should take the matter up with Fidesz in the coming weeks and decide soon.In September, the European Parliament voted to censure Hungary for rule-of-law violations. The EU‘s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, had been considered another contender for the EPP‘s party list candidate, but he announced on Friday that he would decline to run so that he could focus on Brexit through March.That announcement does not preclude the chance that he could be nominated later on, however.
