The earlier secretary-general, Klaus Welle, spent 13 years remodeling his submit into an influence heart that influenced every part from Parliament’s agenda to who occupied the establishment’s high jobs. His departure set off jockeying among the many Parliament’s political teams, with the European Folks’s Celebration, Parliament’s largest group, making an attempt to determine the way it may maintain on to the mighty submit.
As an in depth aide to Metsola, Chiocchetti was seen because the beneficiary of favoritism to get that function. He was additionally accused of benefitting from secret horse-trading that noticed Parliament create a number of new jobs to safe political assist for Chiocchetti and maintain the function within the EPP’s fingers.
“The sordid saga to put in Mr. Chiocchetti as the brand new secretary-general of the European Parliament is certain to wreck the Parliament’s popularity within the eyes of European residents and representatives of different EU establishments,” mentioned Heidi Hautala, then a Inexperienced MEP.
Metsola and her center-right European Folks’s Celebration (EPP), which backed Chiocchetti, insisted they had been simply following Parliament process.
“It was probably the most open course of within the historical past of this establishment,” Metsola mentioned in Sept. 2022. “The emptiness was open a number of months in the past, it was open for everyone to use. Eligibility checks had been performed, and for the very first time ever, there was multiple candidate offered for the job.”
Max Griera contributed to this text.
