German MEP Martin Schulz is the leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here.
Herr Schulz: it seems the PES has gone further than ever before in providing a common platform and manifesto ahead of the 2009 elections. Are you moving towards a genuinely pan-European campaign?
It's not the first time – we already had a manifesto in 2004, but this is the first time we have had a common European platform that all European parties can use in their national campaigns. It was a very long process creating this final manifesto; we had a number of big events and citizen consultations in preparing it. It also includes, I think, some elements that are an immediate answer to the current economic and financial crisis.
Let's continue on the theme of the financial crisis. There is a strong sense of vindication at this Socialist Council that you were right all along. Is this your personal feeling and how much stronger do you believe it makes you for the 2009 elections?
During the election campaign, voters will have the chance to evaluate whether all those who are now speaking like socialists – from the conservatives to the liberals – can deliver concrete proposals to address the financial crisis. I believe voters will see that old-fashioned neo-liberals and conservatives have not suddenly transformed into socialists.
Therefore, we are going to convince voters that if they want a real response to the financial crisis, real social democracy and genuine social justice, they should vote for the original and not the copy.
You mentioned the liberals and conservatives. Rumours are widespread in Brussels that the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) may form a post-election pact with the ALDE group of European liberals. How is the PES addressing this possibility? Are you confident ahead of the elections?
There will be no such majority. Even if the EPP and ALDE form such a pact, they will not have a majority in the European Parliament. We are very confident we will be the largest grouping in the Parliament after the 2009 elections, therefore we are also very relaxed about this whole issue.
I believe the Tories will leave the EPP, and the party will lose a number of seats across Europe. The EPP and ALDE combined currently hold 20 governments in Europe, and many of these are not very popular at the moment. In Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Greece, for example – in these countries we will certainly gain seats which the EPP or ALDE will lose. Meanwhile, some of our [socialist] governments - for example, Spain and Portugal – are in very good shape so I think we have a very good chance of increasing our seats there.
I also know the parliamentary presidents of both parties [Graham Watson, ALDE, and Joseph Daul, EPP] and what I know of their personal relationship does not lead me to believe that this coalition is possible.
Does it matter to the PES whether the 2009 elections are fought on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty, or, as appears almost certain, the Nice Treaty?
I think it's too late to still expect the elections to be fought under Lisbon. We have to live with this result. I think before we move too fast and make errors, we should give enough time to the Irish to think. There is still a chance that Lisbon Treaty can be ratified later in 2009.
A speaker at the PES Council expressed the belief that the "world is changing" as a result of the financial crisis, and that the political climate is ripe for the resurgence of progressive leftist policies worldwide, as happened in the USA. Does the PES feel a similar swing could take place in Europe?
Things are changing in the world, that's true, and the socialist family must give an answer to these changing times. In a multipolar world, a unilateral approach like that of the "Bush gang" will no longer work. Barack Obama will certainly be a more progressive president than we could have hoped for, and his success shows that there is a new strength for socialist policies in the world today.
