The European Parliament elects its new president on Tuesday, a post which could go to the Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola, despite her opposition to abortion which goes badly with many MEPs.
This election is one of the two highlights of the first plenary session of 2022 for the Strasbourg assembly, with Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Wednesday setting out the objectives of the French EU presidency for the next six months.
To succeed the Italian David Sassoli, who died on January 11 and whose mandate ended this week, Roberta Metsola, a member of the right-wing group of the EPP, the first political force in this institution, is the favorite to take the reins until in the summer of 2024.
In Malta, there are many anti-abortionists
She will be opposed to three other candidates: the Spaniard Sira Rego (radical left), the Pole Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, eurosceptics) and the Swede Alice Bah Kuhnke (the Greens). Each of them will briefly defend their vision on Tuesday morning, before the vote.
MEP since 2013 and Vice-President of Parliament since 2020, Roberta Metsola, who turns 43 on Tuesday, had recently gained visibility by acting as David Sassoli, away from the hemicycle by illness for several weeks.
But this mother of 4 children has also drawn criticism from some of her colleagues: in question, her anti-abortion convictions, a very widespread opinion in Malta, the last EU country where abortion remains completely illegal. Aware of the reservations she has aroused on this issue, she assured that in the event of an election, her “duty will be to represent the position of Parliament”, including on sexual and reproductive rights.
According to a tradition, an alternation between left and right has almost always taken place for the mid-term elections to the European Parliament. Roberta Metsola was initially to benefit from the agreement reached between the three main political forces EPP, S&D (social democrats) and Renew Europe (centrists and liberals): the groups had agreed in 2019 to line up behind the candidacy of socialist David Sassoli, and for an EPP candidate to take over for the second half of the legislature.
But given its recent electoral successes, particularly in Germany, the S&D group questioned its support, the group’s president, Iratxe García, explaining that she wanted to defend a candidate “in accordance with (his) priorities and (his) values”. .
Up to four polling days
The three groups finally reached a new agreement on Monday, around a political declaration mentioning several priorities, including the fight against violence against women and for gender equality, the reform of European taxation and the implementation place of a minimum wage directive. The agreement also allocates 5 posts of vice-presidents of parliament to the S&D group, as well as certain committee chairs.
On the far right, the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which notably brings together the French RN and the Italian League, will support the eurosceptic candidate Kosma Zlotowski, from the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
If elected, Roberta Metsola will be the third woman to chair the assembly of 705 deputies, after the French Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002). To be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast by secret ballot. If no absolute majority emerges after three ballots, a fourth round is organized with the two candidates having received the most votes in the previous round. The vote will take place remotely, due to the health context.
According to the regulations of the parliament, the president has a number of powers, in particular that of deciding on the admissibility of texts and amendments submitted to the vote of the assembly, in addition to the conduct of debates. He also represents the institution at the European summits of the Twenty-Seven.