Teresa Ribera named to lead Spanish socialists’ list for EU elections

Spain's Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera today was named as the top candidate for the ruling socialist party's list for the EU elections in June.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) will put its proposal to a vote on Saturday, after which it will announce its final EU election list.

As a candidate, Ribera will continue to resist right-wing politicians' “rejection” of the green agenda, “defending maximum ambition and social justice in climate policies,” the party said in a statement.

In a post on social media platform X, Ribera said it was “an honor” to be proposed to head the party's list.

The nomination increases the likelihood that she could become Spain's pick for commissioner: The country's current representative in the Commission, Josep Borrell, has indicated that he isn't interested in running again.

Ribera — a universally respected technocrat who recently led the EU’s climate diplomacy at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, alongside current EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra — is widely seen as the ideal candidate to occupy a Green Deal-related vice presidency in the Commission.

Speaking to POLITICO at global plastic treaty talks in Canada, Ribera said she is committed to defending the idea "that there is no economic, lasting prosperity if we do not take into consideration environmental aspects.”

“From that perspective, I feel quite comfortable doing that back at home in Spain, but I also feel quite comfortable doing it in Europe.”

In January, she told POLITICO she had “no aspiration at all” to move to Brussels. Having lived abroad for several years running a Paris-based think tank, she said the ex-pat life was not one to which she wanted to return.

Jordan Wolman and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed reporting.