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Eva Kaili was elected as a Vice President of the European Parliament on Tuesday. Credit: Facebook/Eva Kaili

Two Greek lawmakers were elected Vice Presidents of the European Parliament in a vote that took place on Tuesday.

Eva Kaili, of the Movement for Change (KINAL) party, was elected for the first time to this prestigious post and will join Dimitris Papadimoulis of SYRIZA, who was re-elected for the same post.

The European Parliament, which has 14 vice-presidents, is one of three legislative branches of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union, it adopts European legislation, commonly on the proposals of the European Commission. The Parliament is composed of 705 members.

Kaili, who sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group, received 454 votes, coming fifth out of nine candidates, was thus elected to the position in the first round.

Nikos Androulakis, the leader of KINAL/PASOK, tweeted his congratulations to Kaili, saying it was the first time since 2014 that an elected member from their party had held the position.

Kaili is a former television news presenter who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. She was one of the Women who Shape Brussels and the Tech MEPs gang as the leading MEPs addressing the digital revolution according to Politico Europe in 2018.

In the 2004 national elections, she was the youngest candidate standing. In the 2007 national elections, she was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the first district of Thessaloniki. At the time, she was the youngest Member of Parliament with the PASOK party. She retained her seat in the 2009 national elections until 2012.

Papadimoulis, whose candidacy was proposed by The Left group of MEPs, got 492 votes out of 658. Papadimoulis, 66, has been an MEP since July 2014 and also served between 2004-9. He was a deputy to the Greek Parliament from 2009-14.

I warmly thank the MEPs who honored me again with their confidence, with a large majority, from a wide political spectrum, Papadimoulis said.

I am particularly pleased because two of the 14 vice presidents are from Greece. I congratulate Eva Kaili for her election and I look forward to constructive cooperation for the good of our country. For the next 2.5 years, I will continue to represent in the Bureau of the European Parliament both the European Left and, of course, my homeland Greece. For a stronger European Parliament. For a more united, democratic, social and ecological Europe. With more transparency, democracy and solidarity and less inequality, he added.

Maltese center-right MEP Roberta Metsola was elected president of the European Parliament, after the untimely death of David Sassoli earlier in January.

Metsola won 458 votes in the first round of balloting, easily capturing the needed majority after the Parliaments major groups agreed ahead of time to back the 43-year-old politician.

With humbleness, I feel honored by this responsibility with which you are entrusting me, Metsola told MEPs in her inaugural speech from the presidents seat. I promise you that I will work and do my utmost to work on behalf of this Parliament and for the benefit of all EU citizens.

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Two Greeks Elected Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament - Greek Reporter