For Europe’s Socialists, their party meeting, the congress in Málaga, took place at the worst possible time. A few days earlier, Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa had submitted his resignation because he was under investigation in a corruption scandal. This marks the departure of one of the candidates on whom the party had pinned its hopes. Costa should have played a leading role in the Socialists’ line-up for the European elections. Some comrades even wanted him to become their lead candidate. He had previously signaled that he wanted to finish his mandate in Portugal first and then move to Brussels as Council President in the second half of the term.