AT FIRST glance the European Parliament might look invulnerable to the populist wave sweeping across Europe. Antonio Tajani, a centre-right Italian who won the presidency of the chamber on January 17th, is the sort of bland functionary the European Union specialises in. Little on Mr Tajani’s CV grabs the eye, bar an affection for Italy’s long-defunct monarchy and a spell as spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi, the bunga-bungatastic former prime minister. His victory was engineered in classic EU fashion, after four rounds of voting and endless dealmaking between the parliament’s sundry political groupings.

Yet Mr Tajani’s win can be traced to those same disruptive forces. At the last election, in 2014, nearly one-third of the parliament’s 751 seats went to anti-EU or anti-establishment outfits. That forced its two biggest groupings, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), into a “pro-European” grand coalition. Under their deal Martin Schulz, a German Social Democrat, was to serve a two-and-a-half-year term as president before giving way to an EPP candidate.

That pact collapsed in a style that is vintage Brussels. After the deal was struck the other two top EU jobs went to EPP figures: Jean-Claude Juncker secured the presidency of the European Commission, the EU’s version of an executive arm, and Donald Tusk was appointed president of the European Council, the forum for the EU’s heads of government. Furious at being shut out, last year the S&D reneged on the agreement. After Mr Schulz said, last November, that he would return to German politics, the S&D’s parliamentary leader, Gianni Pittella, declared he would run.

The upshot was virtually unheard-of in the parliament’s history: a genuine contest. Seven candidates, many of them from fringe outfits, threw their hats into the ring. Mr Tajani defeated Mr Pittella only after the EPP struck deals with the Euro-federalist ALDE grouping, led by Guy Verhofstadt, and with the European Conservatives and Reformists, a Eurosceptic outfit dominated by Britain’s Conservatives. This odd threesome leaves plenty of questions.

The job of the president sits somewhere between parliamentary speaker and institutional cheerleader. After his win Mr Tajani suggested he would lean towards the former, vowing not to “push a political agenda”. On his watch the parliament will not enjoy the stature it did under the bruising Mr Schulz, but after the collapse of the grand coalition, wiliness may be more important than charisma.

And there is plenty to do. The parliament is often mocked, but it plays a crucial role in EU policymaking. This year it must work on tricky reforms to Europe’s migration and asylum systems, as well as ratifying a controversial trade deal with Canada. The EPP-ALDE agreement calls for action when “European principles” are breached, which could mean steps against Poland’s populist government. The deal also seeks a bigger role for the parliament in Brexit talks. MEPs must approve the final settlement; their vote may take place in early 2019, just as they gear up for re-election.

One relationship to watch will be that between Messrs Tajani and Juncker. The commission president and Mr Schulz got on famously, despite hailing from different political families. That helped smooth the process of passing legislation (under EU rules the commission proposes laws, and the parliament and representatives from national governments pass them). Meanwhile, the S&D is left licking its wounds. Another European trend, then, for the parliament to follow: the collapse of the mainstream left.