for the remainder of the eighth European Parliament (2014–2019) would have been due by convention to pass to an EPP member. However, the EPP–S&D agreement appeared broken, making it less certain that Tajani, who was selected as EPP candidate, would be elected president. The other contenders were the social-democrat Gianni Pittella, the liberal Guy Verhofstadt, the conservative Helga Stevens, the leftist Eleonora Forenza and the green Jean Lambert. On 17 January 2017, Tajani was elected after four rounds of voting, following the withdrawal of Verhofstadt and declaration of support for the EPP candidate by the ALDE; he was first Italian to hold the office since the Christian democrat Emilio Colombo (1977–1979). In March 2017, Tajani warned that "Africa is now risking becoming a Chinese colony" as the Chinese want only the raw materials but not interested in stability. In February 2018, Silvio Berlusconi indicated Tajani as his candidate for the premiership if the centre-right would win the general election in March. Tajani accepted the candidacy on 1 March. In January 2019, Tajani expressed hope to be re-elected for a second 2.5-year term. Controversies In a letter dated 12 February 2013, Environment commissioner Janez Potočnik warned Tajani about "widespread concerns that [car] performance has been tailored tightly to compliance with the test cycle in disregard of the dramatic increase in emissions outside that narrow scope". Tajani declined to take action or report on Potocnik's concerns, until the Volkswagen emissions scandal confirmed the commissioner's concerns in 2015. At the subsequent EMIS hearing on the subject, Tajani claimed that he was not informed of the issue at the time. In the eve of his election as President of the European Parliament, LGBTI rights group, ILGA-Europe, expressed its disappointment with Tajani's new political post and his political backing from the European People's Party (EPP) and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). ILGA has stated that Tajani's concerns, expressed in 1996, with the psychological well-being of same-sex couples and his stance, expressed in 2014, against non heteronormative families are not in line with the stances of the ALDE and the EPP on non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. In October 2018, Tajani told Rai News in an interview that the Italian government's plan for the citizens' income is "not going in the right direction", adding that it "will end up in the pockets of Roma, of foreign citizens – from the EU and non-EU