Roberta Metsola elected European Parliament president

Maltese center-right MEP wins top job in first round of voting. Maltese center-right MEP Roberta Metsola was elected president of the European Parliament on Tuesday.
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Metsola won 458 votes in the first round of balloting. Swedish Green Alice Bah Kuhnke came second with 101 votes, while The Left’s Sira Rego of Spain was in third place with 57 votes. The fourth proposed candidate, Polish MEP Kosma Złotowski from the European Conservatives and Reformists, withdrew ahead of the vote.

“With humbleness, I feel honored by this resposnability with which you are entrusting me,” Metsola told MEPs in a speech from the president’s seat. “I promise you that I will work and do my utmost to work on behalf of this parliament and for the benefit of all EU citizens.”

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Metsola had an absolute majority, avoiding the need for a second round of voting.

“Ours is an institution that is unique in the world,” Metsola told MEPs in a speech ahead of the vote. “We need to strengthen it.”

Metsola succeeds Italian social democrat David Sassoli who died last week at the age of 65, shortly before the end of his term in office. She is due to serve for the next two and a half years — the second half of the current parliamentary term.

“The next part of the mandate will see a window of opportunity to make our parliament more modern, more effective and more efficient,” Metsola said.

Roberta Metsola cements rise to European Parliament presidency.

Maltese MEP’s ascent was secured after offering the Parliament’s increasingly empowered socialists more senior roles.

Roberta Metsola surged to the European Parliament presidency on Tuesday, capping off a campaign where she pitched herself as a young but experienced female leader who can inspire and build consensus across Europe’s fractious political divides.

It took until the final moments for the Maltese politician — who turned 43 on Tuesday — to guarantee she would be elected, as a cohort of socialist MEPs continued to express fears their newly gained power in Europe would not be fairly represented under Metsola and that her more conservative record on abortion was out of step with the Continent’s political direction.

Ultimately, the path cleared Monday afternoon after the socialists were promised a slate of prominent positions in return for backing Metsola.

The deal cemented Metsola’s rise through Parliament, where she is already a well-known name as first vice president and the body’s interim leader since the sudden death last week of former President David Sassoli. Her ascent was buoyed by strong backing from the Parliament’s large center-right and conservative contingent, as well as from many centrists. She was elected with 458 votes out of the 705 MEPs in Parliament.

One senior Parliament official said Metsola called “the only serious contender for the post,” describing her as a leader “seen as a ‘safe pair of hands.’”

Metsola takes control of the EU’s legislative body for two and a half years at a delicate moment — vaulted into the presidency by the large conservative bloc but facing increasingly empowered socialist and center-left groups as Parliament heads toward the 2024 elections. Taking over in the wake of the well-liked Sassoli’s passing will also present its own challenges.

She’ll navigate these dynamics as the Parliament tackles some of its most contentious issues: slashing carbon emissions, digitizing the economy, bolstering the bloc’s military and toughening the EU’s rule-of-law compliance.

“The next two and a half years will be amongst the most critical for the European Parliament as we emerge from a devastating pandemic,” Metsola told journalists in November after the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) group, the Parliament’s largest, tapped her as its candidate. “It will fall onto the constructive forces of this house to plug the holes in our foundations.”