Spaniard elected EU parliament chief

STRASBOURG, France, July 20 (UPI) -- Spanish Socialist Josep Borrell has been elected president of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The 57-year old former cabinet minister beat a stiff challenge from Bronislaw Geremek, a leader of the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland, and French communist Francis Wurtz.

Borrell's victory was made possible by a secret deal between the EU assembly's two largest political families, the Socialists and the center-right European People's Party. The two groups agreed to divide the influential post between them, with the Catalan occupying the chair for the first half of the five-year parliamentary term and German Christian EPP leader Hans-Gert Pottering taking the helm during the second half.

Liberal leader Graham Watson slammed the pact as an "unnatural alliance" reinforcing voters' impression the EU parliament was a place of "backroom deals."