page_title: Martin Schulz
section_title: President of the European Parliament, 2012–2017
hierarchical_section_title: Martin Schulz / Member of the European Parliament (MEP), 1994–2017 / President of the European Parliament, 2012–2017
caption_attribution_description: English: Turkish MP and BDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş with President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz in Brussels, Belgium.Türkçe: BDP Eş Başkanı ve milletvekili Selahattin Demirtaş ve Avrupa Parlamentosu Başkanı Martin Schulz Brüksel'de, Belçika.
context_page_description: Martin Schulz is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party 2017 to 2018, and has served as a Member of the Bundestag since 2017. Previously he was President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017, Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2004 to 2012 and a Member of the European Parliament from Germany from 1994 to 2017.
  In November 2016, Schulz announced he would not seek a third term as President of the European Parliament, but instead would stand in 2017 as the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship. In January 2017, Sigmar Gabriel announced he would not stand for re-election as party leader and as the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship, Gabriel recommended Schulz as his replacement.
  After the elections of 2017, which resulted in a postwar low for the SPD, Schulz declared the end of the Grand coalition under Angela Merkel and explicitly refused to serve in a Merkel government. On 7 February 2018, coalition talks concluded and Schulz announced he would succeed Sigmar Gabriel as Foreign minister and leave his party chairmanship to Andrea Nahles.
context_section_description: 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. He resigned his seat on 10 February 2017, leaving the European Parliament after more than twenty-two years.
caption: Schulz meeting with the Turkish opposition politician Selahattin Demirtaş, who was later arrested
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