On Wednesday the 3rd of July, the European Parliament elected Italian socialist, David Maria Sassoli, as its new President. The 63-year-old Italian is a former TV journalist who became a politician ten years ago as a centre-left Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He won the election with 345 votes ahead of Czech MEP, Jan Zahradil, who received 160 votes and German MEP, Ska Keller, who polled 119 votes.

“Europe will be stronger only with a Parliament which plays a more important role,” Sassoli said in his remarks to the MEPs before the vote.

“Sassoli’s rise to power is unexpected,” Politico reports, “EU leaders had on Tuesday floated the idea of Sergei Stanishev, a Bulgarian and the president of the Party of European Socialists, taking the Parliament presidency. Stanishev would have helped to provide an Eastern European balance to the slate of EU top jobs — the first four of which were settled on Tuesday.”
Stanishev, however, did not submit his candidacy, stating that his role as president of the Party of the European Socialists is crucial to the party.

Sassoli’s election provides political balance for the top EU jobs, but not a geographical one. European Council leaders agreed to nominate German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president, French IMF chief Christine Lagarde as head of the European Central Bank, while Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has been named Council president.

After thanking his predecessor, Antonio Tajani, for his “dedication” to the institution, Sassoli made an emotional plea asking the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to “respond with more courage to the requests of European citizens.” He also asked to “reinforce procedures to make the Parliament a protagonist of a true European democracy,” Politico reports.