Liberal MEP Wallis runs for European Parliament presidency

"I feel that there is a growing sense that whilst we talk much about democracy we seem to have a blind spot when it comes to the most important of our own internal elections,” Wallis said, adding that democratic legitimacy begins at home and the Parliament should put its own house in order.

A UK Liberal Democrat from Yorkshire and the Humber, Wallis was elected to the assembly in 1999 and she has been a vice president of the Parliament for the past five years. "I am persuaded that I have the necessary skills to bring to the task,” she said.

In September, S&D MEPs unanimously nominated German MEP Martin Schulz to succeed Buzek. After the 2009 European elections, the two major political groups decided to share between themselves the five-year term of the president of the European Parliament. Since then, it has been common knowledge that Schulz was in line to be nominated to succeed the current president of the European Parliament, Polish centre-right MEP Jerzy Buzek, who will step down in early 2012.

"I would like to work with fellow MEPs to confirm, in the minds of European citizens, a progressive image of our Parliament, achieved by the diligent work of all members and the responsible exercise of our institutional powers, so putting ourselves in tune and in step with the mood of these most complex times," Wallis said, stressing that the coming months will be challenging, requiring calm and determined leadership.

On a number of occasions, Schulz has asked his group to be less aggressive vis-à-vis its main opponent, the European People's Party, to make sure not to compromise his election, MEPs told EurActiv. Indeed, recently this has greatly helped Guy Verhofstadt, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) leader, to secure more media attention than the Socialists.

This is not the first time that a Liberal has challenged the leading political groups in the European Parliament.

Ahead of the European elections in 2009, Sir Graham Watson, who has just been elected president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), announced he would run for president of the European Parliament. However, he was unsuccessful in breaking the traditional deal between the centre-right EPP-ED group and the Socialists, the two largest political families in the Parliament.

Explaining his decision, Watson argued that the European Parliament needed "a proper debate about the role and priorities of the next president". "This is what European democracy should be about. I hope that by going public with my campaign I will stimulate debate about the candidates and the issues, and spark a contest which will be decided on merit not convenience," Watson had said at the time. 

"It is crucial that the race for the European Parliament president is a genuinely competitive one - not the time-old EPP-S&D stitch up," Watson said in supporting the candidacy of Diana Wallis.

The last woman president of the European Parliament was Nicole Fontaine (1999-2001). Of the 13 presidents of the elected Parliament only two have been women.

The European Parliament will vote for the next president in the plenary session of 17 January 2012 in Strasbourg.