EU elects new parliament president

The European Parliament yesterday elected an Italian social democrat as its new president, filling the final top EU job a day after Brussels named two women to key posts for the first time.

Italy’s David Sassoli, a 63-year-old former journalist, won the absolute majority of ballots he needed at the second round of voting, seeing off German Green Ska Keller, far-left Spaniard Sira Rego and Czech conservative Jan Zahradil.

The new MEPs elected in May’s European polls took office on Tuesday during a brief inaugural session before voting by secret ballot to choose Sassoli as successor to Antonio Tajani, a conservative from Italy.

The 751-seat parliament is more fragmented than ever after the May election saw solid gains by the liberals and Greens as well as the far-right and eurosceptics.

The vote for president completes the roster of the EU’s five most important jobs, with the others settled on Tuesday at the end of three days of negotiation among the EU’s 28 national leaders in Brussels.

Sassoli’s election to a two-and-a-half year term as parliament president -- effectively the speaker of the chamber -- is a sought-after post by the major European political families, though less coveted than that of president of the European Commission or European Central Bank.