European Parliament Elects New President.
Tuesday 17 January 2012By EU Reporter correpondent in Strasbourg
Today the European Parliament elected it's new president.
The German socialist Martin Schulz was elected in the first round of voting in what has been labelled a "stitch-up" by one of his rivals, British Conservative Nirj Deva.
“We have been stitching up the presidency of this parliament, which is representing 500 million people in the largest economy in the world, by doing barter deals —your turn, my turn — just like in Russia with what Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin have been doing,’‘ Deva stated in an e-mail circulated to the entire parliament.
He is referring to the system whereby the largest political groups agree amongst themselves who will sit as president of the parliament. British Liberal Diana Wallis also stood as a candidate, although her own ALDE group, members of which were given a free vote, is believed to have largely backed Schulz, who appears to have had the support of ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt. The EPP, which until today held the presidency through Jerzy Buzek, did not field a candidate.
Independent British MEP Trevor Colman was contemptuous of the process, saying that "As with most things in the European Parliament, today had very little to do with democracy. Nothing has changed" .