EU elections: France’s Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez meet to discuss top jobs and reject far-right as populists gain ground
- Results showed wins for Eurosceptic and green parties as the traditional mainstream groups took a hit
- Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel wants next pick for head of EU Commission decided quickly
French President Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s acting prime minister Pedro Sanchez met on Monday in Paris to discuss the results of the European parliamentary elections, Sanchez’s office said.
During a dinner in the Elysee Palace, the two leaders discussed the allocation of top jobs in parliament and their rejection of the far-right, it added.
“They also analysed the institutional renewal and they agree that new posts need to reflect the new majority in the European Parliament,” a statement of the Spanish PM office said.
The question of who should run the European Union’s executive branch was also the question on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mind on Monday.
The German leader said in her first comments on the election outcome that both her centre-right bloc and her centre-left coalition partners back the idea that the head of the EU’s executive Commission should be a politician who ran for that job.