by Magnus Lund Nielsen
Roberta Metsola has been re-elected president of the European Parliament, winning 562 votes in the first round of voting at the Parliament’s inaugural plenary sitting in Strasbourg on Tuesday (16 July).
In the first item on the week’s plenary agenda, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted to keep the centre-right politician Metsola as president for the next two and a half years.
“I will never shy away from taking the difficult decisions. My door will always remain open, Members will be treated fairly and with dignity” Metsola said, addressing the chamber prior to voting.
The EPP’s Maltese candidate ran almost unopposed, with only The Left putting up an alternative candidate, Irene Montero of the Spanish party Podemos. She received just 61 votes and the Left group has just 46 MEPs.
A Brussels veteran, Metsola has made a name for herself in European politics, working in Brussels since 2005 at the Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU and serving as an MEP since 2013.
She took up the role of president of the EU’s legislative body for the first time in January 2022, receiving 458 votes in her favour in the first round of voting.
She was the first head of an EU institution to travel to Kyiv in 2022 after Russia attacked Ukraine.
At her re-election on Tuesday, she received more than 90% of valid votes– the biggest share of any president of The European Parliament in history. The tally suggests the incumbent received votes from MEPs Greens all the way across the spectrum to the conservative ECR.
The second part of the five-year term is expected to go to the Socialists, who gather the second-largest amount of seats in the Parliament. As the vote will take place in more than two years’ time, there is room for more political horse-trading between now and then
Later on Tuesday, MEPs will vote on the rest of the Parliament’s political leadership when fourteen vice presidents are elected.
The results of these elections are expected to indicate the political agreements reached in the month following the EU elections in early June.
In the last mandate, the far-right groups could only claim one of the fourteen vice-president posts despite having almost a fifth of all MEPs in their ranks.
Metsola’s re-election marks the beginning of a crucial week in EU politics, as later this week, current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will set out her policy priorities for the beginning of her five-year mandate before MEPs decide whether to accept or reject her bid.
*edited by Aurelie Pugnet/Alice Taylor
**first published in EURACTIV
By: N. Peter Kramer
