Martin Schulz selected as the head of EU Parliament

In a major event on Tuesday, the 56-year-old German sociologist Martin Schulz has been chosen as the next president of EU Parliament. The President elect is going to succeed the existing head of the European Parliament and former Polish Premier Jerzy Buzek. Schulz’s victory is reported to be part of an agreement between two big groups (the Socialists and the Christian Democrats) in the parliament. He has bagged 387 votes out of 670.

Apart from Martin Schulz, two British MEPs (Members of the European parliament), Conservative Nirj Deva and Liberal Democrat and vice president of the European parliament Diana Wallis ran for the presidential post. Both of them secured around 140 votes each.

There has been widespread criticism that the election of Martin Schulz as the EU President has not been fair and democratic. Even the selection of the past presidents is alleged to be stage-managed since the past two decades by two particular opponent groups in the parliament. In fact, both Nirj Deva and Diana Wallis have been raising their voice about this and feel that the time has come when the past mistakes should be corrected.