After a frantic day of deal making and the first truly competitive race for the presidency of the European Parliament in years, Antonio Tajani can now get down to…
ADVERTISEMENTAfter a frantic day of deal making and the first truly competitive race for the presidency of the European Parliament in years, Antonio Tajani can now get down to business.
However, the Italian is faced with a fair few challenges with regards to the different political forces at work.
He said he aims “to build bridges bridges with everybody”, although how easy that will be to do amid warring factions is hard to see.
The biggest bridge was the one that secured his victory – the new coalition between the European People’s Party (EPP) and the liberal ALDE – although many right wing politicians are concerned that such an affiliation could impede EU reform.
However, one of the vice presidents of the European Parliament Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said: “We have a very good political agreement with the EPP concerning the future reforms of the EU, concerning the better development of the euro-zone governance and also a much stronger involvement of the EU parliament in the Brexit negotiations”
Tajani is caught in between a number of political orientations.
Warring factions like the pro-European liberals and the conservative eurosceptics, or the german austerity supporters and the Italian MEPs, threaten to disrupt his tenure as president.