Epa Martin Schulz: President-for-life? The European Parliament president is looking for a way to stay.

What’s keeping Martin Schulz up at night? The thought of being just a regular MEP, his colleagues in Parliament say.

Schulz has two more years in office as European Parliament president under a power-sharing arrangement that would return the assembly's leadership to the European People's Party (EPP) halfway through its current five-year term. But sources say Schulz is already looking for a way to hold onto the gavel beyond the agreed deal.

His fellow socialists in the institution are all for the idea.

Gianni Pittella, an Italian MEP who is the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, called Schulz “the best president of the EP in the last decades,” and said an extended term shouldn't be ruled out. The S&D group wants to avoid having all three EU presidencies in the hands of the center-right European People's Party.

“One cannot speak lightheartedly about replacing him," Pittella told POLITICO. "We need to reshuffle positions at the top. It would not be possible to have all of them in the hands of the People’s party, but now it’s not the time to have this discussion.”

The EPP group is clearly worried, and MEPs have said they are readying for a bold proposal from Schulz, who is known as a master political negotiator.

“Martin Schulz is interested and ready to do anything it takes,” said a prominent member of the EPP. “He’s willing to pay any price to our group to secure a second term.”

Said another German EPP member, “I don’t think Schulz can stand the situation of just sitting in the Parliament.”

Sources in the EPP said the bloc may consider letting Schulz stay on as president if only because it sees him as the only way to control the socialist group in the marriage of convenience between the EPP and S&D. "Schulz is the only one who can pull the strings," said one EPP source. "It's a bitter pill to swallow."

Schulz has a few options for his political future in early 2017: He can convince the EPP to go along with letting him stay on as president, take whatever job he can land in the German government or accept life as a rank-and-file MEP.

German newspapers have reported that Schulz is interested in running for the chancellorship of Germany.

Through a spokesperson, Schulz declined to comment for this article. But speaking at POLITICO’s launch event on April 23, he hinted at the prospect of returning to Germany in a more prominent role and played up his reputation as a fixture of the country's political scene.

“I survived Lafontaine, I survived Schröder, I survived Müntefering, Kurt Beck, Platzek, now I am with Sigmar Gabriel," Schulz said, referring to former and current SPD party leaders. "I am in German politics.”

Added Schulz, “What I did is an important thing for the EU, exceptional but necessary. I tried to combine my role in Parliament with my role in my national party.”

“For the first time in my party, people recognize that the work of the job of a member of the European Parliament as important as a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus in Berlin, or the Landtag in Schleswig-Holstein or the German Bundestag. That’s what I did but I will do so in a mixed job: European politics on a European level and national politics on a national level.”

More plausible is the Brussels option.

To set the stage for his coup, Schulz’s camp has floated the argument that the EPP would have too much power with a president in all three EU institutions.

“They’re starting to look for an argument that the EPP shouldn’t get the parliamentary president,” an EPP source said.

The EPP also expects to hear Schulz claim that he made the Parliament stronger by electing the Commission President and because of that, they owe him another term.

“He’ll say ‘Give me the presidency of the Parliament and you’ll have me supporting you for the next two-and-half years,’” the prominent EPP party source said.

“But he can’t commit to that. It’ll be hard for him to convince his own group to agree with the EPP on every policy area — on justice, on fiscal policy.”

The EPP is wary of Schulz, and aware that they can’t rule out the possibility of an extended Schulz term. But an EPP MEP say the group can’t be easily bought.

“The socialists think we’re stupid, but we’re not that dumb to hand the presidency over to them,” said an EPP German MEP.

In 2013, Schulz managed to convince Socialist party leaders to nominate him as the “candidate designate” for the presidency of the Parliament without a primary.

“We don’t really trust him,” said another EPP party source, noting that Schulz was very apologetic to his own party after the fiasco.

Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureşan of the EPP said his party controlled all three institutions from 2009-2012 so the argument for keeping a socialist in power is moot.

“We had the agreement, we have always respected it,” Mureşan said.

“[If Schulz tries to negotiate another term] we would signal this is the deal that he has signed up to. That’s the only thing on the table and Martin Schulz knows this.”

Jacopo Barigazzi contributed to this report.

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