Let the games begin. Not the World Cup games, but the jockeying, the horse-trading, the dagger-in-the-back game of choosing who will head the next European Commission.

We started off, if we care to remember, with Simon Busuttil proclaiming as his party’s candidate the EPP candidate Jean-Claude Juncker, the long-time Luxembourg prime minister and veteran member of countless European Councils and Ecofins.

Not to be outdone, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat proclaimed as the ‘next Commission president’ the PES candidate, and European Parliament president Martin Schultz.

That was then, and this is now.

Following the EP election, and unreported to the wide Maltese audience, Juncker was at first welcomed by a cool response from Angela Merkel. Then, somehow, she warmed to the idea and backed him as the top candidate (Spitzenkandidat).

Meanwhile, the Socialists had quietly dropped Schulz but, again, this was unreported in Malta. Joseph’s Schultz has been shifted to the back-burner.

Does that leave the way open for Juncker? Like hell it does.

Jean-Claude Juncker may have been endorsed by Germany for the European Commission top job, but Italy and France have signalled opposition, while Britain has warned about the consequences of choosing the former Luxembourg PM for the post.

A British official on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that British PM David Cameron at an EU summit last week told fellow leaders that Juncker was not the right person for the job and that if he is picked, it will be more likely that Britons would vote to leave the EU.

The official however dismissed reports that Cameron threatened to bring forward a referendum on Britain's EU membership if Juncker became commission President.

German magazine Der Spiegel the same day had reported that Cameron told fellow leaders his government would be destabilised to such an extent if Juncker is picked, that the referendum planned for 2017 would need to take place sooner and that Brits would likely vote to leave the EU.

But Cameron is not alone in his anti-Juncker stance. Sweden and Hungary have already spoken openly against him.

And on Sunday, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Juncker has no automatic right to the post.

"Juncker is 'one' name for the Commission, but he is not 'the' name," Renzi said during an economic conference in Trento.

Renzi, who is a Social Democrat, is not part of the European People's Party which put Juncker forward as top candidate for the EU elections.

Another centre-left leader, France's Francois Hollande, is also reportedly against Juncker.

German mass-selling tabloid Bild am Sonntag reported that Hollande is trying to block Juncker and to get the post for his former finance minister, Pierre Moscovici.

For Juncker to get the nomination of EU leaders for the commission job, a 'qualified majority' is needed, where bigger states have a weightier vote. If Italy and France abstain or say No, while Britain, Sweden and Hungary vote No, Juncker does not have enough votes.

That is only one aspect of the issue. Being endorsed by EU leaders is only part of the process. Juncker would then also need majority backing in the EP. The parliament is also due to vote again in autumn on the composition of the new EU commission, after conducting hearings of each commissioner candidate.

There is an ongoing fight between the Parliament and the Council on who gets to elect the head of the Commission. The Parliament says it is now its right and in fact negotiations between EPP and PES have started to form a Grand Coalition to push through Juncker’s candidacy while the member states in the Council assert this privilege is theirs and they have not abrogated their rights over it.

While Martin Schultz has stood aside in deference to Juncker’s candidacy, he may well be waiting for Juncker to give up the fight. That will be when the race becomes exciting. If (or rather when) the Juncker candidacy drops, other candidates will come forward. It has been said over and over again that what Europe, with such a lack of enthuisiasm about the EU project as was reflected in the 43% turnout for the election, plus so many votes going to eurosceptics of the Right and of the Left, needs is a new face, a reformer, not a man of countless summits and who resonates the past.

Europe is slowly coming out of the crisis, with many hiccups and question marks about the future. It has many intractable problems from immigration to poverty. It does have countries who are toying with leaving, such as Britain, but there are also countries, like Ukraine and Serbia, who clamour to join. It would be a great pity of its various leaders miss out on delivering the person who can give hope to the 500 million inhabitants of the union.