The European Parliament has elected former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek as the chamber's president.The vote on the 69-year-old Polish conservative was the first job of the newly-elected parliament in Strasbourg.Mr Buzek is the first politician from the former communist bloc to chair the parliament. He received 555 votes in a first ballot.The elections last month produced an assembly of 736 MEPs with the centre-right forming the biggest bloc.Mr Buzek headed a coalition government in Poland in 1997-2001. He joined the European Parliament in 2004, the year of Poland's EU accession."Human rights will be a priority," Mr Buzek told MEPs, recalling the key role of the Solidarity trade union movement in democratising Poland in the 1980s.He replaced German conservative Hans-Gert Poettering as parliament president. In the vote, Eva-Britt Svensson MEP, a Swedish leftist, came second with 89 votes.Mr Buzek will hold the post for two-and-a-half years - half of the parliament's five-year mandate. Under a deal struck before Tuesday's vote, a Socialist MEP will serve as president for the other half.
