Spanish Leftist Elected As EU Parliament Head

by Michael Thurston
STRASBOURG, July 20 (AFP) - The European Parliament on Tuesday elected Spanish Socialist Josep Borrell as its new president, at the EU assembly`s first full session since the bloc`s historic May enlargement.
The vote came at the start of a three-day plenary meeting which is also expected to approve the nomination of former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as head of the European Commission.
The Strasbourg session also saw the parliamentary debut of deputies elected in June ballots after the European Union`s May expansion, including notably a number of fierce eurosceptics who reiterated pledges to "wreck" the assembly.
Borrell, a former Spanish transport and treasury minister, was elected on the first attempt by the 732-member assembly, the European Union`s only directly-elected body.
A total of 388 MEPs backed Borrell to succeed Irish liberal Pat Cox wielding the Strasbourg gavel, against 208 for his main rival, former Polish foreign minister Bronislaw Geremek.
A deal appears to have been struck between the conservatives and socialists to share the presidency, starting with Borrell who would hand over to People`s Party chief Hans-Gert Poettering of Germany in 2006 for the rest of the parliament`s five-year-term.
While Borrell won ringing tributes from his supporters, Liberal group leader Graham Watson reiterated his opposition to the power-sharing deal between left and right.
"The alliance they have formed is an unnatural one," he said, adding that if the left and right try to carve up deals "my group will fight them every inch of the way."
The Strasbourg session was the first full meeting of the Parliament since the May 1 enlargement of the bloc from 15 to 25 member states. Previously there were 626 MEPs.
On Wednesday Durao Barroso is due to address the parliament, ahead of a vote Thursday on his nomination to succeed Italy`s Romano Prodi as head of the European Commission, the EU`s executive arm.
The former Portuguese prime minister emerged last month as the compromise choice, and has the backing of the centre-right European People`s Party (EPP), the biggest grouping in Strasbourg.
But critics, notably among Socialists and Greens, have vowed to oppose him in particular because of his jobs and social policy in Portugal and also his high-profile support of the US-led war in Iraq.
But as the heavyweights concentrate on power-plays over key EU posts, others will have their sights on other causes: putting a spanner in the bloc`s institutional works.
Britain`s UK Independence Party, one of the most high-profile eurosceptic groups which boosted its presence in the Strasbourg assembly in the June ballots, wants Britain out of the EU altogether.
Shortly before Borrell`s election UKIP`s parliamentary leader, Nigel Farage, ceremonially ripped up his ballot paper in a press conference in the sidelines of the parliament session.
The party`s star, former television presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk, reiterated his pledge to "wreck" the parliament by exposing its fraud and corruption.
"We do not wish to rain on their parade, we do not wish to spoil their party," he said. "If other people ... wish to cede their sovereignty and independence to this anonymous, amorphous entity then that`s fine."
"It is simply that we do not want to belong to their party, because we want to govern ourselves."