After reelecting Manfred Weber as party president the day before, the European People’s Party (EPP) congress in Valencia on Wednesday also elected its new secretary-general and ten vice presidents. The composition of the new EPP leadership reflects the party’s desire to become a more centralized political powerhouse to dominate all three EU institutions.
The EPP’s new secretary general—Weber’s right-hand woman—is Spanish MEP Dolors Montserrat, the leader of the Spanish PP’s EU Parliamentary delegation and vice-chair of the EPP group in Brussels.
Montserrat’s election did not come as a surprise: she was tapped for the role by Weber himself a month ago, and since he was the only candidate for the presidency, his appointee also ended up on the ‘ticket’ unchallenged.
Similarly to Weber’s dual role as group chairman and party president—something that many staffers have complained about, both due to the centralization of power and the corresponding double salary—Montserrat is also expected to keep her parliamentary jobs in addition to her new title.
The 51-year-old is the first woman to hold the second most powerful position in Europe’s largest party family. According to Weber, she represents a “younger” and more “modern” party, the “EPP of tomorrow.”
In reality, however, Montserrat was selected because of her unquestionable loyalty to Weber and willingness to carry out his centralizing mission with ongoing reforms, widely seen as a massive power grab both within and outside the party.
As we described in more detail here, Weber is actively restructuring the operational model of the EPP by deepening his “presidency coordination” system—having delegation leaders, national ministers, and even EPP commissioners agree on joint party lines before every major meeting or decision—as well as handing down policy priorities to members across all three EU institutions without much room for dissent, making sure that he at any point has personal control over the legislative process.
Weber’s methods have often been described as “authoritarian,” with the president aggressively pursuing his manufactured consensus. As one EPP official recently described it, anonymously, it often goes along the lines of: “Here’s a draft, if I don’t get a response in the next 30 hours, we will pass this.”
While this centralization has been ongoing for the past three years, Weber is reportedly shifting gears in this new term, seeking to completely unify the party position across all institutions and in all political matters, under his strict supervision. And to carry this out—being as unpopular among his own cadres as he is—Weber needs someone at his side who would never question him.
And that’s what Montserrat is. When she was asked by reporters how she imagines her role as secretary general—previously a largely administrative but now increasingly politicized role—Montserrat’s reply showed that she knew perfectly what was expected. “I want to be a politician. Loyal to my president, Manfred, of course.”
Corresponding to Weber’s vision, EPP’s ten new vice-presidents represent every EU institution: Parliament, Council, and Commission. However, unlike in the previous presidency, which was dominated by MEPs, an increased number of positions have now been given to government officials representing the national parties, which is meant to counterbalance the fact—even if just superficially—that Weber is elevating himself to be on par or even above them.
The most powerful new vice presidents include Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo; Antonio Tajani and Kostis Hatzidakis, deputy PMs of Italy and Greece, respectively; as well as Dubravka Šuica, the Croatian executive vice-president of the European Commission, and Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for internal affairs from Austria.
As we noted above, the appointment of a large number of national party leaders to the EPP presidency is not accidental. Weber expects to have much more control over policy decisions even in the national capitals, and this is how he plans to achieve that: by symbolically elevating his partners but keeping the real power to himself.