TY - THES ID - 134727562 TI - Unexpected defeat or concealed opposition? Assessing the position of the EPP regarding the Spitzenkandidaten procedure in the 2019 European Parliament elections AU - Stieb, Ava Rachel AU - Weilandt, Ragnar AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen. Opleiding Master of European Studies. Transnational and Global Perspectives (Programme for students started as from 2020-2021) (Leuven) PY - 2022 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134727562 AB - Abstract: In the 2014 European parliamentary elections, the political parties in the European Parliament tested out a novelty by introducing the Spitzenkandidaten system at EU level. While the European Parlia-ment succeeded in 2014 and Jean-Claude Juncker, as the Spitzenkandidat of the victorious Europe-an People's Party (EPP) which had won the most votes in the elections, was ultimately accepted by the European Council and thus appointed President of the European Commission, the second at-tempt of Spitzenkandidaten failed in 2019. Manfred Weber, the EPP's Spitzenkandidat for the 2019 elections, was rejected by the European Council and did not get the necessary backing from the Parliament. In the end, his party colleague Ursula von der Leyen became head of the Commission 2019-2024. This Master's thesis explores the two questions as to whether the EPP actually felt bound by the Spitzenkandidaten procedure and genuinely supported it, and whether it put up Manfred Weber as its Spitzenkandidat with the honest intention of backing him to become the fu-ture Commission President. The two-part qualitative analysis of this Master's thesis addresses the two research questions and concludes that the vast majority of the EPP is positive about the Spitzenkandidat system itself, both in its public statements and party documents on its website and in newspaper coverage by EURACTIV and POLITICO. However, through news reporting in the second part of the analysis, it becomes evident that while the EPP was honestly in favour of its Spitzenkandidat Weber and wanted to make him Commission President after winning the elections, he did not enjoy the unanimous support of his party in the weeks after the elections, when criticism arose in the Council and the other political parties, and that some EPP members proposed other candidates to replace Weber and campaign for a future EPP Commission President who could get a majority in the Parliament and in the European Council. Overall, this paper argues that although the EPP supported the Spitzenkandidaten system, in 2019 it was more attached to the appointment of an EPP Commission President in general than to its Spitzenkandidat Weber. ER -