Former European Commissioner Antonio Tajani has been elected president of the European Parliament. He defeated fellow Italian, Gianni Pitella, in a race that also saw Romanian MEP Laurentiu Rebega compete and will take over from Germany’s Martin Schulz.
The other candidates for the first ballot were Helga Stevens (ECR, Belgium), Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), Eleonora Forenza (GUE/NGL, Italy) and Jean Lambert (Greens/EFA, UK).
“I took this decision because I am concerned about the increasing distance between the European institutions and the interests of our citizens. As I said, it was not an easy decision, but I received the support of all my colleagues from the ENF Group,” Romanian MEP Rebega said. “It is true that the president of the EU does not have a large area of attributions, but he/ she can maintain a certain equilibrium between the several opinions existing at the European Parliament. Small political groups are usually disadvantaged in comparison to the bigger ones,” he said in his argument, published under the title “Why I am running for European Parliament presidency.”
In the ballot, European People’s Party (EPP) Antonio Tajani received 351 votes, against 282 for socialist MEP Pitella in a contest that ran to the maximum of four rounds.Tjani dedicated his win to those who died in August’s earthquake in Italy and to victims of recent terror attacks. “We must devote our attention to all those who are in tough living conditions,” Tajani said.
Georgeta Gheorghe