Antonio Tajani has been named president of the European Parliament following a final face-off with Gianni Pittella (S&D, IT).
After three rounds of voting, none of the six candidates won an absolute majority of the votes. After a fourth round, Tajani led with 351 votes. Pittella had 282 votes.
In every voting session, Tajani maintained the lead position with Pittella in second place.
Every candidate gave a three-minute speech detailing how he or she intended to lead Parliament during their 2.5-year term. One candidate, Guy Verhofstadt, withdrew from the race before voting began.