Jean-Claude Juncker has jumped through all the hoops on the way to the European Commission presidency. Of the 729 votes cast, he scored 422 (250 against, 47 abstentions and ten non-valid). That is more than for the election of Martin Schulz to the European Parliament presidency on 1 July (409). It is also more than what José Manuel Barroso scored in 2004 (413) and 2009 (382).
The outcome was not a foregone conclusion, as Juncker acknowledged afterwards. "I never feared…
Who voted how?
The Commission president is elected by secret ballot. The chairs of the S&D, ALDE and of course EPP groups urged their troops to vote for Juncker. But some delegations rejected these instructions. In the S&D group, the British, Spanish and French voted against Juncker or abstained. At their meeting, on the morning of 15 July before the vote, they recognised that he had made tremendous concessions, but the three delegations stood their ground. So the greatest number of defections came from the ranks of the Socialists. Among the Greens, 15 to 20 members apparently voted for him, including José Bové, his competitor in the race for the presidency, intent on "approving the democratic victory" represented by this election.
