Luxembourg’s Marc Angel was elected vice-president of the European Parliament on Wednesday, taking over the post that had been taken away from Greece’s Eva Kaili after she was remanded in custody on suspicion of money laundering, corruption and involvement in a criminal organisation.
It took two rounds of voting for the candidate from the S&D group (social democrats, centre left) to obtain the necessary majority. The Greens/EFA, the fourth largest group in the assembly, had nominated French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield and the far-right ID group had nominated Italian MEP Annalisa Tardino.
The 60-year-old MEP from the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party, a former teacher and MP in the Grand Duchy, was elected to the European Parliament in 2019.
In a first vote, he missed the majority by a few votes, receiving 263 votes in favour, when he needed 278. Annalisa Tardino (ID - Lega Nord) received 179 votes and Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA - Ecolo) 113.
A second vote immediately followed, in which the Socialist candidate received 307 votes (296 were needed), to 185 for Tardino and 98 for the Green MEP.
His predecessor, Greek MEP Eva Kaili, was expelled from her party (Pasok) over the Qatargate scandal and is no longer an S&D member. Kaili was officially removed from her position as 5th Vice-President on 13 December.
She had held this position since the middle of the legislature, i.e. January 2022, according to the distribution of responsibilities agreed between the three main political groups in the Parliament, the EPP (conservatives, Christian Democrats), the S&D (social democrats) and Renew (liberals, macronists).
