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Marc Angel succeeds Eva Kaili as Deputy President of the European Parliament
Photo: JULIEN WARNAND / EPA
The EU Parliament has elected a Luxembourg social democrat to succeed Eva Kaili, who was dismissed because of allegations of corruption.
A majority of MEPs voted in Strasbourg for Marc Angel as the new Vice-President of the European Parliament.
The 59-year-old prevailed in the second ballot with 307 votes.
In the first ballot, he still missed the necessary absolute majority.
Angel belongs to the same faction as Kaili once did - she has since been expelled from the party family.
Now Angel is one of 14 vice-presidents of the parliament.
He has been an MEP since 2019.
Angel prevailed against two competitors.
The French Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield ran for the Greens, and the Italian Annalisa Tardino for the right-wing populist ID faction.
Tardino was able to unite 185 votes, Delbos-Corfield got almost 100 votes.
The European Parliament dismissed Kaili with an overwhelming majority in December shortly after allegations of corruption against the 44-year-old and other suspects became known.
The Greek Socialist Party (Pasok) announced shortly afterwards that the Greek MEP had been expelled "following recent developments and investigations by the Belgian authorities into the corruption of European officials".
Kaili is said to have admitted some of the allegations against her.
The Greek politician and three other suspects are accused of money laundering and corruption.
The Gulf state of Qatar and Morocco are said to have tried to influence decisions in the European Parliament.
Both countries reject this.
Panzeri's accountant arrested
After Antonio Panzeri, one of the main suspects in the EU corruption scandal, announced yesterday that he would cooperate with the authorities, his tax advisor was arrested today.
The Belgian authorities accuse her of involvement in a criminal organization, corruption and money laundering.
Former MEP Panzeri is currently being held in custody in Belgium along with three other suspects.
He is considered a key figure in the scandal that Belgian investigators uncovered in December.
muk/AFP