Watson considers open EP presidency campaign elementary

Graham Watson has announced he is running for president of the European Parliament. The Liberal leader of the ALDE Group said he had had enough of presidents of Parliament being chosen through backroom deals, and that this was the first ever public campaign for the presidency.

The next chair of the assembly will preside over a new set of MEPs, following this June’s European elections. Traditionally, the conservatives and socialists have arranged to alternate in the post. Watson wants to change that. The liberals are the third-largest group in the hemi-cycle.

Till the EU elections, it’s German Hans-Gert Pöttering presiding. Watson, the UK Liberal Democrat MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, has served in the European Parliament since 1994.

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tags: EU Parliament, President