Elena Yoncheva was Not Selected for the Position of Vice-President of the European Parliament

The Bulgarian MEP Elena Yoncheva was unable to win the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament.

She was one of the candidates of the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The group chose Luxembourg's Marc Angel to succeed the Greek Eva Kaili, who was arrested in late 2022 on suspicion of receiving bribes in exchange for lobbying in favor of Qatar. The biggest scandal in the history of the EP became known as "Qatargate".

The S&D group refused to comment to media in which place Elena Yoncheva qualified. They reasoned that it was an internal procedure.

Apart from the Bulgarian, the Socialist candidates for the position were the Frenchman Raphael Glucksmann, the Romanian Victor Negrescu, the Lithuanian Juozas Olekas, the Finnish Miapetra Kumpula-Natri and the Slovenian Matjaz Nemec.

However, there is no guarantee that the candidate chosen today will get the post, Politico notes. The other political groups in the EP can propose their own people. There are a total of 14 Vice-Presidents of the Parliament. The successor of Eva Kaili must be elected at the session starting on January 16 in Strasbourg.