BRUSSELS – Italy’s European Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told POLITICO that he will not run in the European Parliament elections, appearing to exclude himself from the race for the EU’s top job.
“I will not run for the European Parliament,” Gentiloni said as he walked with his team through the corridors of the European Parliament. Asked if his name would be on the table in the race for the EU’s top talent, the Italian politician said after June’s vote: “No, I’m going back to my home country.”
It is highly unlikely that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who heads Italy’s right-wing coalition government, will nominate Gentiloni for another term in Brussels.
But his name was being circulated in Brussels as a leading candidate for Europe’s center-left groups, including his Democratic Party. So far, the only name that has emerged as a formal candidate to become the face of the Socialist Party camp is Gentiloni’s colleague at the European Commission, Nicola Schmidt.
The European Socialist Party will select its front-runner in Rome in March.
Asked whether this marked the end of his political career, Gentiloni, a former Italian prime minister and foreign minister, quipped: “I will never retire.”
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