Antonio Tajani will be the new European Parliament president | Patrick Seeger/EPA Tajani to secure Parliament presidency with Liberal deal Liberal Guy Verhofstadt has agreed to drop out of Parliament presidency race, leaving EPP’s candidate with clear path to victory.

STRASBOURG — Antonio Tajani, of the European People’s Party, was poised to be elected the 29th president of the European Parliament on Tuesday, propelled to victory by a new partnership between his center-right group and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Tajani finished the third round of voting for European Parliament president with a commanding lead, and though the vote was headed to a fourth and final round, the European Conservatives and Reformists group quickly announced that it would back him, delivering the needed votes.

After the third round, Tajani was in first place with 291 votes, well ahead of Gianni Pittella, the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, who had 199 votes. But the refusal of lower-tier candidates to give up meant that Tajani was still short of an outright majority of the 690 valid votes cast.

Tajani’s victory stood to hand the EPP control of the leadership of all three EU institutions – the Parliament, the Commission and the Council – and also to deliver a crushing defeat for the once-predominant Social Democrats, who have seen their influence crumble across the Continent.

Tajani, a veteran MEP and longtime consigliere to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was virtually guaranteed victory after an 11th-hour deal was hatched between Manfred Weber, the German MEP who leads the EPP group, and Guy Verhofstadt, the ALDE leader, who withdrew his own candidacy for president in favor of the new alliance.

Tajani’s victory, once confirmed, would sideline the S&D and reshape governance of the EU by restoring a partnership between the EPP and the liberals that has not existed since the conservatives and socialists teamed up to install Josep Borrell as Parliament president in 2004.

In exchange for Verhofstadt’s endorsement of Tajani, the liberals will gain control of the powerful Conference of Committee Chairs, and the socialists are likely to see their role in Parliament vastly diminished as they are effectively relegated to opposition status.

In many ways, defeat for Pittella mirrors the electoral setbacks that the once predominant socialists have faced in national elections across the Continent, including in Germany, France and the U.K.

Weber, appearing at a news conference just before noon, declared victory. “It’s a historic day today,” he said. “Tajani will be a president of the whole house, a president of the institution."

Weber added: "Our approach was always to build bridges and form partnerships. Unfortunately, Pittella and the others wanted to fight, they wanted to separate, to create divisions. The EPP wanted to create bridges."

Weber’s positive spin masked the uneasiness among many EU officials over the EPP taking control of the leadership of all three main EU institutions. That means the EPP, the political family of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will effectively own Brussels much as the U.S. Republican Party will own Washington after Friday’s inauguration of Donald Trump.

Any criticism or failings of the EU will weigh heavily on the EPP in a year of crucial national elections, including in the Netherlands, France and Germany.

"Europe is in crisis," stated the EPP-ALDE agreement. "Nationalists and populists of all boards try to destroy the Union from within and from outside ... Therefore, the EPP and ALDE — beyond their ideological differences — have decided to work closely together and to offer a common platform as a starting point for this pro-European cooperation. We appeal to all other pro-European forces in the House to join this initiative and to add their ideas and their priorities to our agenda of reform."

Pittella, who did not concede defeat, urged MEPs to continue to support him in the ballot.

In a statement announcing the withdrawal of his candidacy Tuesday morning, Verhofstadt said he was stepping aside to prevent Parliament from being "weakened."

"With [U.S. President-elect Donald] Trump, with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, with many other challenges Europe faces, it is key we cooperate to reform our Union," Verhofstadt wrote. "This coalition plan is open to all pro-European groups. It’s a coalition of ideas. To change the direction the European Union is heading."

The socialists' Pittella, who did not concede defeat, urged MEPs to continue to support him in the ballot.

"This Parliament needs to be a space where everyone can debate," he said before the first round of voting.

"We will never again have a grand coalition," Pittella added. "We need clarity. Europe and our democracies need clean divisions between ideas."

Pittella had worked to build a support base including the Greens and the far left, but he seemed likely to come up short of the needed votes.

Tajani, who spent recent days diligently calling individual MEPs to secure their backing, stressed his extensive experience, including his recent stint as Parliament vice president.

"I believe in Europe, but we need to change," Tajani said in a speech ahead of the ballot. "We need a president, not a prime minister, a president who has experience, and I would like to put my 23 years of experience at your disposal."

Noting the challenges of Brexit, he said: "We will have to defend the rights of Europe."

The new pact stands to reshape the current governance of the EU, which has relied in recent years on a partnership between EPP and S&D, the two largest groups.

The deal averts what could have potentially become a nasty and divisive fight through the fourth and final round of voting, which could have opened the door to secret deals between one of the mainstream groups and one or more of the Parliament's fringe Euroskeptic parties.

Quentin Ariès and Joanna Plucinska contributed reporting.