Italian conservative Tajani elected new EU parliament president

Antonio Tajani of Italy was elected president of the European Parliament on Jan. 17, consolidating a conservative grip on key European Union institutions as the mainstream right and left struggle to unite against eurosceptics. 

The new speaker, a 63-year-old former EU commissioner and  ally of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, relied for his victory on support from the ruling conservative parties of Britain and Poland, which are sharply critical of the EU. 

They argue that the EU impinges on national sovereignty and see it as bureaucratic and wasteful. To get their final backing Tajani issued a statement saying solutions to the EU's problems "are not found in more and more Europe," an unusual remark for a president of an institution that has traditionally been a bulwark of EU integration. 

But he also said solutions are not to be found in blowing up the EU project. 

Tajani, a former journalist, succeeds German Social Democrat Martin Schulz at a time of crisis for the EU. Britain wants a divorce deal that needs the legislature's blessing while old adversary Russia and old ally the United States both pose new threats to EU survivors holding together. 

Schulz's tenure saw close cooperation with the center-right head of the EU executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, but ended with recriminations over the end of a decade-long left-right grand coalition. 

That could spell trouble for the smooth passage of EU laws on a range of issues, and has been seen as giving a potentially greater voice to eurosceptics bolstered by Britain's vote last year to quit the EU. 

The new coalition that will run the legislature will rely on an awkward alliance between sceptic conservatives and pro-EU center-right and liberal...