The French President finds himself in a strong position to influence the bloc’s hunt to replace Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk as the EU’s presidents. Just weeks after Mr Macron tried to boot Britain out of the EU ahead of the European election, his liberal bloc of MEPs now boasts over 100 members with the inclusion of Vince Cable’s anti-Brexit candidates. ALDE, the pan-European liberal group to which Mr Macron has pledged support, won 109 MEPs at the European elections, seeing their ranks almost double.
A strong showing for the Lib Dems in Britain saw them win 15 seats as they finished second place behind Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
Ironically, the Lib Dem numbers have helped Mr Macron strengthen his position, despite the French leader warning about the dangers of British participation in the European elections while EU leaders last month decided to delay Brexit until the end of October.
Mr Cable, the current leader of the Lib Dems, will travel to Brussels today to meet with ALDE leaders, including Guy Verhofstadt, as they seek to assert themselves into the top jobs race.
Mr Macron has already begun his manoeuvres to establish himself as the bloc’s kingmaker, calling for a “European Commission president candidate that can build a robust majority way beyond the partisan lines”.
Emmanuel Macron boasts EU kingmaker status but only with help of Liberal Democrats (Image: GETTY)
ALDE sources say they are working on building a coalition with the green and socialist bloc to prevent the centre-right European People’s Party candidate, Manfred Weber, from replacing Mr Juncker, who steps down in October.
Mr Macron’s En Marche and Alde said in a statement: “At this hour, no candidate for the presidency of the Commission has secured a majority in the European Parliament.
“We would be extremely vigilant about any attempt to bypass the necessary negotiations between the democratically elected stakeholders, as it would be extremely harmful to the transparency and accountability of the European democratic process.
“The new balance of power in the European Parliament calls for a Commission president candidate that can build a robust majority way beyond the partisan lines.
“Our new group will be open to consider all candidates that can gather the support of the political families that will compose the future governing majority.”
In the coming days, ALDE is expected to present a proposal to the Commission that all but stops Mr Weber from taking over the presidency.
Mr Macron has started his pitch to EU colleagues in order to gain support for the plan throughout the European Council.
He met Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s socialist prime minister, for dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris last night.
The French leader has already held talks on the EU’s future with Mark Rutte, the Netherland’s liberal prime minister, and Antonio Costa, Portugal’s centre-left prime minister, in recent weeks.
EU leaders will tonight hold an informal dinner at the European Council’s Europa Building to discuss the European election results and kickstart the top job appointments process.
Mr Macron’s attempt to wrestle control of the process will likely cause friction in Berlin, with Angela Merkel’s CDU offering continued support for Mr Weber.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the leader of Ms Merkel’s CDU party, insists Mr Weber is “the lead candidate and he is our man for European Commission president – and we have achieved this goal”.
Despite heavy losses, the EPP still won the most MEPs and remain the single biggest party in the European Parliament.
Under the so-called Spitzenkandidat system, the candidate from the largest party is expected to take the top Commission role.
With no overall majority in the Parliament, Mr Macron will establish himself as the kingmaker in the selection process after the liberal bloc of MEPs won 109 seats.
The EPP only managed to win 180 seats, prompting Mr Weber to concede that the “centre is shrinking”, while the Socialist and Democrats fell to 145 MEPs.
This is the first time in 40 years that a majority isn’t commanded by the two traditional parties, leaving whoever wants power will have to seek a messy compromise coalition.
The Greens boasted of being “indispensable” to this process after winning 69 MEPs in the European elections.
Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts said: “To make a stable majority in this Parliament the Greens are now indispensable.”