EP Vice-Presidents Elected, Right Wing Misses Top Positions

(Patria) - Members of the European Parliament yesterday elected their 14 vice-presidents for the new legislative period until 2029.

Candidates from the far-right parliamentary groups again missed out on top positions.

During the constitutive plenary session of the 10th Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs elected 14 new vice-presidents from among 17 candidates.

In the first round, elected by secret ballot on paper, 11 candidates received support - three from the European People's Party (EPP), five from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, two from the Renew liberal group, and one from the Greens.

Candidates from the far-right groups Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations did not achieve an absolute majority of cast and valid votes, nor did candidates from the more moderate right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group and a candidate from the far-left Left group.

However, in the second round, ECR candidates Roberts Zile and Antonella Sberna, and Left candidate Younous Omarjee, received the required number of votes.

Klára Dostalova and Fabrice Leggeri from Patriots for Europe, and Ewa Zajaczkowska-Henrik, a candidate for Europe of Sovereign Nations, were left without vice-presidential seats.

Pro-European parliamentary groups had previously announced they would continue to implement the policy of a "cordon sanitaire," a practice aimed at preventing far-right MEPs from taking top positions in the European Parliament through voting.

Among the groups considered pro-European are the EPP, liberals, socialists, and greens, who, despite political differences, prevent the right wing from taking leadership of the parliament and the chairs of parliamentary committees through this practice.

The 10th European Parliament has 720 MEPs, with Patriots for Europe having 84 and Europe of Sovereign Nations 25.

Earlier yesterday, MEPs re-elected Maltese EPP member Roberta Metsola as their president with 562 votes; she served as president in the previous term since 2022.

In the election of vice-presidents, the highest number of votes in the first round went to EPP members Sabine Verheyen (604) from Germany, Ewa Kopacz (572) from Poland, and Esteban Gonzalez Pons (478) from Spain.

Socialists Katarina Barley, Pina Picierno, Victor Negrescu, Christel Schaldemose, and Javi Lopez received between 450 and 377 votes of support.

Liberal Sophie Wilmes from Belgium was elected with 371 votes, and Nicolae Stefanuta from Romania with 347 votes.

The EPP is the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament with 188 MEPs, followed by the socialists (S&D) with 136.

The liberals in the Renew group have 77, and the Greens have 53.