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Schulz was conspicuous by his absence during a presidential debate on Monday (Photo: europarl.europa.eu)

Feature

Schulz: King of Parliament (and backroom deals)

Schulz was conspicuous by his absence during a presidential debate on Monday (Photo: europarl.europa.eu)

In April, Socialist Spitzenkandidat Martin Schulz could hardly have been clearer. "The days of the Commission president being nominated by a backroom deal are over," he told his fellow candidates, and the media.

On Tuesday, the same Martin Schulz was re-elected for an unprecedented second term as the European Parliament's president on the back of a deal cut in Berlin which, if not actually made in a “back-room”, was neither transparent nor terribly democratic.

If that seems like ...

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Author Bio

Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

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