Barroso secures MEPs’ support to win second term

JOSE Manuel Barroso is poised to become just the second person to win a second term as European Commission president after a majority of MEPs voted for him.

In a secret ballot in the European Parliament, Barroso got 382 votes with 219 against and 117 abstentions. Centre-right and EU critical members and some Socialists from his native Portugal and neighbouring Spain supported him while the bulk of Socialists abstained.

But afterwards Socialist leader Martin Schultz described the re-appointed president as “the weakest in the history of the EU” and warned they want him to put a new emphasis on strong social policy.