Thread by @Staedtler

effectively it's both the European parliament and the European Council that decide the Presidency by mutual agreement.
Neither wants it to be entirely in the hands of the other

At the moment, rules as they are, each group in the parliament nominates their lead candidate, and the largest group after the Euro elections, their candidate gets the job

The Lib Dems are part of the ALDE group in the European parliament.
And their candidate for the Presidency is Margrethe Vestager.

I think there's a bit of shoving and shouldering between the European Council and the Parliament sometimes, but I think the parliament is going to stretch its independence as time goes on. Just like a democracy should.

Formally, it's member states that nominate the president, after what they call "taking into account" the parliamentary numbers.

Which means in practise the member states end up endorsing the candidate as chosen by the parliament

Some countries (France) are a bit itchy about this because they think the parliament is getting a bit above itself.