Strasbourg, France - The European Parliament on Tuesday elected its first president from a former-Communist member state as the 736-seat legislature gave an overwhelming majority of votes to Poland's former conservative premier Jerzy Buzek, 69. Buzek received 555 out of a total of 713 votes cast, according to official results. His only challenger, Swedish environmentalist Eva-Britt Svensson, received 89 votes.
The vote is highly symbolic, as it marks the first time that a citizen of one of the EU's new member states, which spent much of the 20th century behind the Iron Curtain, has been appointed to one of the bloc's permanent presidencies.
Buzek's victory had already been assured after the parliament's conservative, socialist and liberal groupings, who together control 533 seats, agreed to appoint Buzek for the first 30 months of the 2009-14 session.
Under a deal made by the three main parliamentary groups after elections in early June, the presidency of the parliament will be handed to a member appointed by the socialist bloc at the end of 2011, the statement said.
The initial indications are that the post will go to veteran German socialist Martin Schulz.
Buzek, a chemical engineer by training, headed Poland's centre-right government from 1997 to 2001, bringing in reforms to the pension, education and health systems. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 with a record number of votes.
