STRASBOURG, France, July 16 — Germany's Ursula von der Leyen was elected to be the next president of the European Commission on Tuesday with a slim majority.

She made history as the first female chief executive of the European Union. The slim majority also helped avert a political crisis for the world's largest trading bloc.

The European Parliament currently comprises 747 lawmakers, so the threshold needed to be elected was 374 votes, more than half of its component members.

Of the 733 votes casted by members of the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, she won 383 votes, only 9 votes more than the necessary 374-vote majority. Had her nomination - without objection from any of the 28 EU member state governments - been shot down, Brussels would be deep in uncharted political waters.