Few European statesmen from the left front announced themselves with a common declaration against a possible second mandate of the chairman of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso. The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the former Prime Ministers of France and Greece Lionel Jospin and Costas Simitis, the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, Paavo Liponen from Finland, Franz Branitzki from Austria and the former Polish Prime Minister Alexander Kvashniewski summoned the Party of the European Socialists to present an alternative nomination to Barroso for the chairman’s position. The initiative is of the former Portuguese Prime Minister and president Mário Soares. In their declaration the eight former statesmen point out that the European national party has already nominated someone for Barroso’s position, who is believed to be a front-runner for a second mandate and call for PES to do the same.

A week ago Costas Simitis called for the Prime Minister of the socialist party PASOK Georgios Papandreou, who is also the president of the Socialist International, to withdraw his support for José Manuel Barroso. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev also supports the current Euro Commission chairman. According to the former Greek Prime Minister, Barroso has taken the European Union into inertness, instead of the necessary reforms and the Party of the European Socialists is making a big mistake when it agrees and supports his policies instead of separating itself from them.

Not long ago Costas Simitis admitted in an interview that the European Social Democracy has lost its attractiveness for the European citizens. “In order to bring back the trust of the people, we need to answer to the question what kind of Europe do we want and how can we achieve it? The first part of the question is easily answered but we need to find a solution to the second part,” said he.