Barroso urged to shun socialist backing in commission job bid

Brussels - Eurosceptic lawmakers Monday urged European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to promote a centre-right manifesto for his next executive and 'confine socialism to the fringes.' Barroso - a former conservative prime minister from Portugal - is negotiating his re-election as head of the European Union's executive with European Parliament group leaders. The commission president has said he wants 'the broadest possible support' from parliament, but left-wing parliamentarians suspect him of having a free-market agenda. 'Our message to President Barroso is that he can forge a centre-right alliance in Europe and confine socialism to the fringes,' Michal Kaminski, head of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), said ahead of a meeting in the afternoon with Barroso. Composed of mostly British Conservatives and Polish eurosceptics, the ECR has 54 lawmakers in the 736-strong parliament. Barroso enjoys the unanimous support of the EU's 27 governments, as well as the largest group in parliament, the conservative European People's Party, which hammered the left-of centre Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in June's EU-wide elections. ECR Deputy Chairman Timothy Kirkhope, a member of the British Conservative Party, said Barroso must pursue 'an agenda of reform and deregulation in the next five years.' Most left-wing lawmakers want the opposite from him. In theory, Barroso could obtain a second mandate without resorting to the votes of socialists, greens and other left-wing groups. But the Portuguese has made it 'perfectly clear' that he is seeking 'a broad base of support among all political forces,' commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said Monday. 'There is no intention whatsoever from the president of the commission to exclude political forces, less so political forces that .... will be important participants in the next commission,' Laitenberger said. Meanwhile, France's Le Monde newspaper reported Monday that French Prime Minister Francois Fillon would be ready to put forward his candidacy as commission president should Barroso's bid fail.