DPA

Brussels

EU politicians started haggling yesterday for the bloc’s top jobs, after elections that saw the conservatives and socialists remain the strongest factions in the European Parliament, but also delivered gains for anti-establishment groups.

In a move aimed at boosting voter turnout, Europe’s political parties for the first time have put forward lead candidates for the post of European Commission president.

The EU’s executive proposes laws and plays an important role in ensuring they are implemented.

However, the successful nominee must now win majority backing in the parliament and among the EU’s 28 governments.

Former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker, the candidate of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), has said he feels “entitled” to the post since his party will be the largest in the new parliament.

But it does not hold an absolute majority, with provisional results yesterday afternoon estimating that it will control 213 or 28.36% of the 751 seats in the next parliament, which will start its work in July.

Juncker said yesterday that he does not see the possibility of attaining majority support unless his conservative group wins over the Socialists, who came in second with a projected 190 seats.

Juncker has vowed not to ally himself with extremist parties.

“I’m prepared to discuss substance, mainly with the Socialist party,” he told journalists in Brussels.

The Socialists did not sound particularly conciliatory yesterday, however, with their president, Sergei Stanishev, accusing the EPP of being “the big loser” in the elections because its support fell.

He said he expects the Socialist candidate Martin Schulz, who is the president of the current parliament, to explore possible majorities in parallel with Juncker.

Parties should form their alliances on political, rather than “arithmetic” calculations, Schulz argued.

Juncker said he was willing to seek common ground, “but without throwing myself on my knees before those parties that did not win this election”.

But German Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who leads his country’s Socialist party, called on the EPP to make “offers” if it wants the support needed for Juncker to become president.

Parliamentary leaders will meet this morning to consider the way forward, hours before EU leaders take up the issue at a Brussels summit in the evening.

There are concerns that the leaders could pick an outside candidate, since EU laws merely stipulate that the election outcome must be taken “into account”.

But analysts have warned that such a move would likely lead to an institutional crisis in Brussels.

Europe’s leaders also face serious questions after far-right and eurosceptic parties scored big gains, notably in France, where the anti-immigrant National Front had its first victory, and in Britain where the anti-EU UK Independence Party was set to come first.

“Behind the vote is a lot of disappointment ... a complete loss of trust,” Schulz noted.

The question now is who the new eurosceptic and far-right parliamentarians will align themselves with in the EU legislature.

Divisions within their bloc could water down their influence.