Word: strasbourg
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Strasbourg, the spanking new European Parliament chose as its first President the elegant and brainy Simone Veil, 52, a former French Health Minister, a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz death camp and one of the Continent's hottest political properties. In Lisbon, President António Ramalho Eanes abruptly chose as interim Premier Maria de Lourdes Pintassilgo, 49, a chemical engineer and women's rights advocate now serving as Portugal's delegate to UNESCO in Paris...
...political body that considers itself historic, the election of a victim of Nazism symbolized the enduring European reconciliation to which it is committed. Veil regularly tops the polls as the most popular political figure in France. In Strasbourg, it was hoped that her grass roots appeal could help the untested new Parliament make up with prestige and influence what it lacks in constitutional power...
Answer: Not much, except that they have all just won an election. Soon they will all be commuting to Strasbourg as mint-new members in the Parliament of the European Community, the world's first democratically elected international body...
Public posturing and backroom politicking began within hours after the results were in. The first matter on the agenda when the new Parliament convenes in Strasbourg on July 17 will be the choice of a president. Willy Brandt, who campaigned across the continent for his Socialist colleagues, had been considered the leading contender. In view of the center-right's strong showing, Veil was being touted by supporters as a more fitting choice. Former Belgian Premier Leo Tindemans, who heads the Parliament's powerful Christian Democratic group, meanwhile, was bidding for the informal post of majority leader...
...expect to work harder, and will be paid the same salaries they would have received as members of their national legislative bodies (which vary widely), plus travel allowances. These could prove to be considerable if the Parliament sticks to its plan to hold half its monthly plenary sessions in Strasbourg, the other half in Luxembourg and nearly all committee meetings in Brussels. But the political heavyweights are already chafing about that idea. Brandt, for one, in an initial show of parliamentary independence, declared that the seat for the new Parliament is its own business, "just as it is the most...