PES website blogs the Campaign for a PES Primary

The campaign is delighted to report that the official PES website (www.pes.org) is now carrying a blog article describing the Campaign for a PES Primary. This is not OFFICIAL support for our campaign, but it does show the seriousness and credibility of what we are arguing for.

In an article entitled, "Activists float idea of PES Primaries", the PES blog notes:

In an example of using social networking to organising an activists campaign, on the 26th of July a group of PES activists, led by Desmond O’Toole (Irish Labour Party), and José Reis Santos (Portuguese Socialist Party), launched a Campaign for a PES Primary on Facebook. So far the Group has attracted over 1000 members and is generating significant publicity with articles in New Europe and euobserver, not to mention blog articles by Jon Worth, David Chopin and Ralf Grahn amongst others.

According to Desmond and José, the campaign’s objective is that the next PES Council, in Warsaw in December, agrees to schedule democratic primaries in every member party of the PES to select the candidate for Commission President. This call is based on Resolution 2 from PES Congress 2009 in Prague, in which it was agreed that giving a face to a political platform is imperative in today’s politics, especially in such difficult elections as the European ones. To tackle apathy at the European ballot box it was agreed to have a PES candidate for the European Commission Presidency.

Primaries are just one mechanism of choosing a candidate. In a paper by Dr. Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Policy Advisor, there are at least five methods suggested for selection. One thing is clear however, the goal is a landslide victory in 2014, how that goal is reached is going to be an exciting and engaging debate.