Symbolic day as ex-Polish leader heads European Parliament

A FORMER Polish prime minister was elected President of the European Parliament, the highest position in the European Union so far for a politician from eastern and central Europe.

Jerzy Buzek saw his election as “a tribute to the millions of people who didn’t bow to a hostile system” in the former Soviet Union. “There is now no ‘you’ and ‘us’; we live in a shared Europe”, he told the first session of the new parliament sitting in Strasbourg.

Born in Silesia when it was occupied by Germany and now part of the Czech Republic, he remarked, “This is a great day especially in a symbolic sense.”