Civic Platform (PO) MP Ewa Kopacz, a former health minister, was chosen today as the new speaker of the Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.

Ms Kopacz received 300 votes in the 460-member parliament and is the first woman to be elected to the position in the history of all Polish parliaments, ever. Ms Kopacz, a medical doctor by education, was first elected to parliament in 2005 as a member of PO. She became minister of health in 2007.

Ms Kopacz raised controversy in 2009 by requesting pharmaceutical companies to present the advantages of swine flu vaccines and demanding they take full responsibility for the side effects. She advised the Polish government to wait until proper testing had been done on the vaccine before purchasing it.

Although she was initially criticized for the move, she later received praise after it was revealed that some scientists with close ties to drug companies that sold swine flu vaccines had lobbied the World Health Organization to declare the H1N1 virus a global pandemic.

According to the Polish constitution, the Speaker of the Sejm takes over in case the president dies or is incapacitated.