Strasbourg: Ursula von der Leyen, federal minister of defence of Germany, became the first female to grab the European Union Commission's Presidential position. Her victory has not only created history but has also helped to ward off a political crisis for the world's largest trading bloc.
With 383 votes out of 733, she filed her nomination without any objection from the 28 EU member state governments.
The mother-of-seven and Germany's first female Defence Minister she thanked lawmakers with a smile and said, "The task ahead of us humbles me. It's a big responsibility and my work starts now."
A barrage of politicians including EU lawmakers threw their support behind her in Strasbourg. But the vote in the seat of the EU legislature was a secret ballot, potentially enabling lawmakers to break from official lines.
Von der Leyen was born and grew up in Brussels, Belgium, where her father once served as a senior officer in the EU. She will, upon taking office in November, oversee the EU's executive branch of around 32,000 staff in her birthplace and represent the 500 million-strong economy in the world.
A trained gynaecologist, she was fluent in English, French and German and she made a point of that by speaking three languages in one speech on Tuesday morning to EU lawmakers, in the last bid to win their support.
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