Stella Kyriakides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday, October 10, following the resignation of Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) last week, PACE vice-president Arpine Hovhannisyan (Armenia) said in a Facebook post.

According to Hovhannisyan, the Assembly managed to unite around an indeed unbiased candidate despite all the pressure from the European People's Party.

Days before PACE was to debate a motion for his dismissal, the body’s president, Agramunt resigned, tweeting “personal reasons” as the motive.

Agramunt was stripped of his powers in April over a meeting with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and over the poor managing of internal corruption allegations. Nonetheless, he remained president.