Today.Az » Politics » Former Polish PM elected Euroepean parliament president
14 July 2009 [15:56] - Today.Az
The European Parliament elected Jerzy Buzek as its president Tuesday, making the ex-Polish premier and pro-democracy activist the first easterner from a former Communist country to head a major EU institution, AP reported.
A leading member of the Solidarity trade union that sank Communism in Poland in the late 1980s, Buzek won 555 of the 644 valid votes cast — an outright majority in the first ballot at the inaugural session of the new 736-member EU assembly.
His nearest opponent, Swedish Green Party member Eva-Britt Svenson, won only 89 votes.
Many political leaders in the assembly likened Buzek's election as a final healing of Europe's old East-West division, as did Buzek, a center-right politician.
"Once upon a time I hoped to be a member of the Polish parliament, in a free Poland," he said. "Today I have become the president of the European Parliament, something I could never have dreamed of."
Buzek, 69, called his election "a measure of Europe can change."
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