Instead, the mother-of-seven and Germany's first female defense minister - who said ahead the vote she would resign her office - thanked lawmakers with a smile and said "The task ahead of us humbles me. It's a big responsibility and my work starts now."

Her election was preceded by good news on Tuesday as a barrage of politicians, including senior EU lawmakers, threw their support behind her in Strasbourg. But the vote in the seat of the EU legislature was a secret ballot, potentially enabling lawmakers to break from official lines.

Von der Leyen was born and grew up in Brussels, Belgium, where her father once served as a senior officer in the EU. She will, upon taking office in November, oversee the EU's executive branch of around 32,000 staff in her birth place and represent the 500-million strong economy in the world.

A trained gynaecologist, she was fluent in English, French and German and she made a point of that by speaking the three languages in one speech on Tuesday morning to EU lawmakers, in a last bid to win their support.