The very first direct European election came about after a long struggle. The mid-1970s were a time of progress for European unity, with the first enlargement of the European Community, the beginnings of European monetary cooperation, and the creation of the European Council. For a founding father like Jean Monnet, the occasion of the first direct European elections was the moment to cease his relentless activity and retire, confident that a new generation of democratically elected leaders would pick up the work where he left off.
In June 1979, citizens from the nine Member States made their way to polling stations to cast their vote. The election campaign had given rise to a new iconography — posters, TV commercials and merchandising — that stressed joint decision-making. The turnout was around 62 %.
On day one of the new chamber, two women were at the helm. It was initially presided by the oldest member, Louise Weiss, a fervent advocate of European unity and campaigner for women’s rights since the twenties, who was now crowning her career on both accounts. Weiss passed the baton to the first democratically elected president of the European legislature, Simone Veil, a former French minister and Holocaust survivor who championed women’s reproductive rights. After the founding fathers of the fifties, Europe was rallying its founding mothers!
In the second part of the parliamentary term, starting in 1982, the president was Piet Dankert of the Netherlands.
