European Greens elect German as lead candidate for EU elections

German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Terry Reintke has been chosen to head the European Greens in this year's European elections as lead candidate.

At a party congress in the French city of Lyon, delegates also elected Bas Eickhout from the Netherlands as the male lead candidate, the European Green Party (EGP) announced on Saturday.

The 36-year-old Reintke received some 55% of the vote. Her two competitors, Eilna Pinto from Latvia and Benedetta Scuderi from Italy, received some 24% and 20% of the delegates' votes respectively.

At the beginning of June, the citizens of the 27 EU member states are called upon to elect the new members of the European Parliament.

Reintke comes from the western German city of Gelsenkirchen and is the leader of the Green group in the European Parliament. She is considered a self-confident feminist and an advocate of strong social policy.

After the result, she said: "I will fight for a diverse, green and social Europe, a democratic Europe in which racism and hatred have no place."

At the German national party conference in Karlsruhe in November, the German Greens elected Reintke to the top of the list for the European election campaign, meaning she is certain to remain a member of parliament in the coming legislative period.

The European Greens have been meeting in Lyon since Friday. In addition to the election of the top candidates, an election programme is to be adopted there.