The European Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats wants Pina Picierno, who recently quit their group, to resign from her post as Parliament vice president.
“While we acknowledge that EP rules technically allow her to keep the vice-presidency, doing so would be politically incoherent,” said Andrea Maceiras, spokesperson of the S&D group’s chair, Iratxe García.
Maceiras said that the positions “are the result of negotiations during the constitutive process and reflect the weight of the political groups, meaning that [Picierno] is holding a position that belongs to the S&D.”
Picierno announced Thursday morning that she would defect from the S&D group over disagreements with Italy’s center-left Democratic Party leader, Elly Schlein, and what she says is the Italian party’s ambiguous stance on Russia and Ukraine and populist drift.
The 14 Parliament vice presidents are elected at the beginning of the term by secret vote in the plenary. The positions will go up for grabs again at the start of 2027 when political groups will need to agree on a new Parliament president.
The S&D group has four vice presidents, down from five since Picierno’s defection.
Source: Politico
