Sophie Wilmès candidate to become European Parliament vice-president

Sophie Wilmès applied on Thursday to become one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. She is running on behalf of her liberal group, Renew Europe.

The first plenary session of the European Parliament since the June elections begins on Tuesday in Strasbourg. Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola is likely to be elected for a second term as president: her group, the Christian Democrat and Conservative EPP group, has agreed this with the Socialist and Democrat S&D group and Renew.

The 720 MEPs will then elect 14 vice-presidents and five quaestors. Together with the president, they sit in the Bureau, the body that deals with all administrative and organisational matters of the Parliament. The vice-presidents also chair debates in the absence of the president.

14 candidates

The list of candidates currently includes three from the EPP, five from the S&D, four from Renew, one from the Greens and one from the far left. The right-wing and far-right groups ECR, Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations have not yet officially nominated candidates.

Sophie Wilmès (MR) led Belgium as prime minister of a caretaker government in 2019 and 2020. She later joined the De Croo government as Foreign minister, but resigned in 2022 to care for her terminally ill husband, who died last November.

Wilmès made her political comeback in June's European elections, where she lived up to her reputation as Belgium's most popular politician. She won 543,821 primary votes, more than any other Flemish candidate and setting a new Walloon record.

^{© BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE}