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Martin Schulz

Quick Facts

Gender

Male

Place of birth

Oschatz

The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German Social Democratic politician who served as the President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017. Previously he was leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. On 1 July 2014 Martin Schulz was re-elected as European Parliament President. In November 2016, he announced that he would not seek a third term, and instead run for parliament in Germany in 2017; he was succeeded as President of the European Parliament by EPP MEP Antonio Tajani on 17 January 2017.

Education and professional career

Schulz was born in the village of Hehlrath, which is now a part of Eschweiler in western Rhineland, as one of five children. His father was a local policeman. Having grown up in the border area between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, Schulz has relatives in all three countries.

After four years at primary school, from 1962 to 1966, Schulz attended the Heilig-Geist (Holy Spirit) grammar school, a private Roman Catholic school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers (or Spiritans), in Broich (now Würselen), a district of the town of Broichweiden, for nine years, leaving without his abitur. As a teenager, he went on an exchange to France through his school.

From 1975 to 1977 Schulz then trained to be a bookseller.

The next two years he worked for a number of publishing houses and bookshops, and in 1982 he opened his own bookshop in Würselen, which he ran until 1994.

Political career

Early beginnings

In 1974, at the age of 19, Schulz joined the SPD, became involved with the Young Socialists and in 1984 was elected to the Würselen Municipal Council, remaining a member for just over two electoral terms, to 1998, from 1987 onwards as mayor. At 31, he was then the youngest mayor in North Rhine-Westphalia. He held that office until 1998. As a municipal counselor he initiated the twinning of Würselen with the city of Morlaix in French Brittany, where he became friends with Marylise Lebranchu, who was the mayor and is now the French Minister for Public Services.

Member of the European Parliament, 1994–present

Martin Schulz with the former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in 2014.

In the 1994 European elections Schulz was elected to the European Parliament and between 2000 and 2004 was chair of the SPD delegation. Schulz has served on a number of committees, including the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He led the German delegation of the Socialist group (SPD members) from 2000 and was also a vice-chair of the Socialist Group in the EP. He was elected group leader in 2004, of the PSE Group, succeeding the Spaniard Enrique Barón Crespo, a position held until he was elected EP president. Since 2009, Schulz has also acted as the representative for European Affairs for Germany's SPD party and his views have deeply influenced his party's pro-European politics.

In 2004 as Leader of the S&D group, Schulz introduced a motion in the European Parliament to refuse to give approval/consent to the Barroso Commission on the basis of the proposed appointment of Italian nominee Rocco Buttiglione and his publicly expressed homophobic views. A large majority of MEPs from the other political groups followed and consequently Buttiglione was withdrawn and replaced by Franco Frattini.

By 2008, SPD chairman Kurt Beck has said he wanted Schulz to succeed Günter Verheugen as Germany's EU commissioner following the 2009 European elections; the post eventually went to Günther Oettinger.

President of the European Parliament, 2012–present

Following the 2009 European elections Schulz came to public attention when he insisted that his group should not immediately approve a second term of office for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and instead, together with the Chair of the Green Group in the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, proposed the Belgian Liberal Guy Verhofstadt as a candidate for that office. Following reassurances by Barroso, Schulz dropped his categorical opposition to him, insisting only that he should make certain political concessions to the Social Democrats. As a result, the majority of the group abstained on the confidence vote to Barroso.

On 15 September 2011, members of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament unanimously nominated Schulz as their candidate for the President of the European Parliament. On 17 January 2012, Schulz was elected as President of the European Parliament, with 387 votes in favour out of 670 cast. Other candidates were Nirj Deva (142 votes) and Diana Wallis (141 votes).

Together with EU Commission President Barroso and EU Council President Herman van Rompuy, Schulz collected the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the European Union. The Prize, honoring "over six decades [having] contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe", was awarded by a unanimous decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

As president of European Parliament, Schulz proved extremely adept at delicate diplomatic missions, such as his visit with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following the 2016 coup attempt and his visit with Iranian President Hassan Rohani in November 2015 to "intensify dialogue" between the EU and Iran a few months after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In November 2016, Schulz announced that he would not run for a third term in January 2017, and instead return to German politics.

Candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, 2013–2014

On 6 November 2013, Schulz was nominated as "candidate designate" by the Party of European Socialists – at the time the second-largest group in the 750-seat parliament –, with the aim to become the first candidate to be elected President of the European Commission by democratic elections. He was unopposed, as no other candidate stepped forward to challenge him in the race to be the socialist campaign figurehead. This kicked off a tour to all member states and particularly all member parties.

On 1 March 2014, Schulz accepted the nomination of the Party of European Socialists in Rome. He was elected by 368 PES members out of 404, with only 2 votes against him. Prior to the vote, in what was widely seen as a clear signal to its European partners on the left that there are limits to their support for the EU, Britain's Labour Party had publicly spoken out against Schulz as the left's candidate, instead favouring Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark's Social Democrats. Schulz launched his European campaign on 17 April in front of 1,600 socialist activists in Paris, promising to tackle taxes and social dumping. He ran against Conservative Jean-Claude Juncker, then Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and Liberal Guy Verhofstadt.

However, when the Socialists came second in the European election behind the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), Germany's Social Democrats announced that they would accept one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives taking the German post on the European Commission if Schulz remained president of the European Parliament. The decision to back Juncker for the Commission's presidency instead was later endorsed at an informal meeting in Paris of eight Social Democratic leaders, including Thorning-Schmidt, Sigmar Gabriel of Germany and Werner Faymann of Austria. Accordingly, Schulz did not join the European Commission but remained in his current position.

Role in German politics

Since 1999, Schulz has been part of the SPD leadership under party chairmen Gerhard Schröder (1999–2004), Franz Müntefering (2004–05 and 2008–09), Matthias Platzeck (2005–06), Kurt Beck (2006–08) and Sigmar Gabriel (since 2009). Within the party, he serves as co-chairman of the Commission for International Politics, alongside Niels Annen. Schulz was a SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012. In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal elections, he was part of the wider leadership circle chaired by Angela Merkel, Horst Seehofer and Sigmar Gabriel. He also led the SPD delegation in the working group on European affairs; his co-chair of the CDU/CSU was fellow MEP Herbert Reul.

During his 2014 campaign for the Presidency of the European Commission, Schulz managed to establish himself as a regular presence in German media on issues unconnected to the European Parliament elections that year. By 2015, German newspapers speculated that Schulz was interested in running for the chancellorship of Germany in the 2017 federal elections. In May 2016, he told weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he would not enter the race to succeed Angela Merkel. Schulz' November 2016 announcement that he would not seek a third term as president of the European Parliament and instead run for a seat on the German parliament in the 2017 elections reignited the chancellorship speculations.

Political positions

European integration

Schulz meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran

Schulz is widely considered an ardent EU supporter. In 2014, however, he argued it was also essential that responsibility was delegated away from Brussels and down to national, regional and local authorities, allowing the EU to focus on the big issues.

Security policy

In front of the European Council on 19 December 2013, Schulz took responsibility for the initiation of the Cox-Kwaśniewski mission to the Ukraine. In the same speech, he noted that Europe was still militarily dependent on the USA, and that in many cases Europe would be quite incapable of carrying out a military operation without the support of the USA.

Schulz was quoted in a newspaper report of his speech as having said: "If we wish to defend our values and interests, if we wish to maintain the security of our citizens, then a majority of MEPs consider that we need a headquarters for civil and military missions in Brussels and deployable troops," The External Action Service of HRUFASP Catherine Ashton had prepared a proposal, which was supported by France, Spain, Italy, Poland and Germany who together have QMV majority, to create a European Air Force composed of surveillance drones, heavy transport airplanes, and air-to-air refuelling planes. The debate was joined with a view presented by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who maintained that "Nato will remain the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security." Rasmussen's view prevailed on the Council at this time because QMV does not take effect in decisions of the European Council until 1 November 2014.

Relations with the Americas

In an effort to improve relations between Europe and Cuba, Schulz led a European Parliament delegation to Havana for talks with Carlos Lage Dávila on lifting EU sanction against the countries in 2008.

In 2016 Schulz stated that Donald Trump is a problem "for the whole world," and linked the Trump phenomenon to far-right populism in Europe. He called Trump an "irresponsible man" who "boasts about not having a clue."

Relations with Russia

In 2015, amid the Ukrainian crisis, Schulz suspended a committee made up of Russian and EU lawmakers that meets several times a year to improve ties. When Russia barred entry to two European Union politicians who had planned to attend the funeral in 2015 of murdered opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, Schulz criticized the barring as "a high affront to EU–Russia relations and the work of democratic institutions."

Relations with Israel

On a visit in February 2014, Schulz gave a "generally pro-Israel" speech to the Knesset, but he implied at one point, based on what he himself described as unverified data, that Israel was denying Palestinians a fair share of water resources in the occupied West Bank. This part of the speech sparked a walk-out by several lawmakers from the right-wing Jewish Home party, and drew a public rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Elsewhere, Schulz has voiced strong support for Israel, going as far as saying that "Germany exists only in order to ensure the existence of the State of Israel and the Jewish people"; scotched talk of an EU boycott of the country; and criticized the bloc's 2015 decision to label Israeli goods that are produced in the West Bank, a stand that drew Palestinian criticism.

Other activities

Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), Member of the Board of Trustees
Institute for European Politics, Member of the Board of Trustees
Stiftung "Achtung!Kinderseele", Member of the Board of Trustees

Controversy

Berlusconi incident

On 2 July 2003, one day after Italy taking over the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, Schulz criticized Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy of his domestic policy. Berlusconi replied:

Signor Schulz, so che in Italia c'è un produttore che sta montando un film sui campi di concentramento nazisti: la suggerirò per il ruolo di kapò. Lei è perfetto!
In English: Mister Schulz, I know of a film-producer in Italy who is making a film about Nazi concentration-camps. I will recommend you for the part of a Kapo [concentration-camp inmate appointed as supervisor]. You are perfect!

Berlusconi later claimed he was referring to the comedy-series Hogan's Heroes, where a slow-witted character named Sgt. Hans Georg Schultz, played by John Banner, starred. Even though Berlusconi insisted that he was just being ironic, his comparisons with the Nazis caused a brief diplomatic rift between the two.

Incident with Godfrey Bloom

On 24 November 2010 the British MEP Godfrey Bloom caused a row in the European Parliament when he interrupted a speech by Martin Schulz, heckling him with the Nazi propaganda slogan 'Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer' ('one people, one empire, one leader') and accusing him of being an 'undemocratic fascist'. Bloom later stated that he was referring to the fact that the indoctrination of the German people under the Nazi regime has long-lasting effects; "some Germans still find it difficult to accept diversity in Europe and differences of opinion". In the debate on the future of the Euro Stability Pact Schulz had criticised the role played by the United Kingdom, which was involved in the discussions despite not being a member of the eurozone, and said that some eurosceptics would take pleasure in the collapse of the European Union. Following the incident, the President of Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, excluded Bloom from the Chamber. The Dutch MEP Barry Madlener, from the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV – Freedom Party), then protested against that decision, on the grounds that Schulz himself had recently described the PVV MEP Daniël van der Stoep as a fascist, but had not been excluded from the Chamber.

Campaign-related issues

Schulz received criticism after having transformed the Twitter account, that his staff had built up for his European Parliament presidency, into his own personal account in order to use it as part of his candidature to the EU Commission.

During his time as President of the European Parliament, Schulz removed a paragraph critical of his stewardship in a key committee report set for debate on 2 April 2014, thereby attracting a lot of negative attention. As a consequence, a large majority of the European Parliament voted on 4 April 2015 to invite Schulz to resign so that he is able to campaign for the European elections.

Lastly, Schulz was criticized that the president of the parliament received until 18 April 2014 a tax free daily allowance of €304, also while he was campaigning to become president of the commission. This was paid for 365 days a year, additionally to his salary of €200,000 a year. A member of parliament receives this daily allowance only for attending.

Personal life

Schulz is married and has two children. Among his favourite books are The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and all the books of Eric Hobsbawm. In addition to reading, he enjoys football, being a passionate supporter of the football club 1. FC Köln. He also enjoys music and movies, having also written movie reviews on historical films.

Schulz suffered a period of alcoholism as a young man after a knee injury put an end to his hopes of playing football.

Besides German, Martin Schulz speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch to varying degrees of fluency.

Honours and decorations

Europe

Germany: Federal Cross of Merit (First Class) in 2006
Austria: Grosses goldenes Ehrenzeichen der Republik in 2008
Russian Federation : honorary Doctorate by the Kaliningrad State Technical University on 18 May 2009
France: Officer of the French Légion d'honneur in 2010
Romania: Collar of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania on 31 October 2012; Doctor Honoris Causa title by the National School of Political Science and Public Administration of Bucharest on 31 October 2012.
Italy Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 8 November 2012
Portugal: Key of Honor to the City of Lisbon on 20 June 2013
Gold Medal of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, in 2014.
Germany: International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen on 14 May 2015