Roberta Metsola elected European Parliament president

Roberta Metsola elected President of the European Parliament

Roberta Metsola has been elected president of the European Parliament obtaining the support of an absolute majority of MEPs on the first round.

The Maltese MEP received 74% of valid votes cast in the hemicycle in Strasbourg. 

In her acceptance speech, Metsola pledged to uphold the values of openness, human rights, solidarity and rule of law the European Union champions. She spoke of the need to extend the Schengen area but at the same time emphasised security within the EU and at its borders.

Metsola spoke of the Russian threat to Ukraine and the need to focus on the Balkan states. She also highlighted the need for the reunification of Cyprus.

Metsola spoke in Maltese, her mother tongue and English but also paid tribute to her predecessor David Sassoli in Italian and put in a few paragraphs of French.

The 42-year-old mother of four is the first Maltese to occupy one of the highest institutional posts in the EU. She is the first woman to occupy the role of EP president since 1999.

Roberta Metsola the moment she learns of her victory

Who were the candidates?

Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola today faced competition from three other candidates – the Greens candidate Alice Bah Kuhnke, the Left’s Sira Rego, and ECR’s Kosma Zlotowski.

Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT), Alice Kuhnke (Greens/EFA, SE), and Sira Rego (The Left, ES) gave short presentations on Tuesday at 9am, immediately before the first voting round. The result was announced at 11am. Kosma Złotowski (ECR, PL) withdrew his candidacy just before the vote.

The S&D, the second-largest group, did not have a candidate. In a deal brokered on the eve of the vote between the S&D, the EPP and Renew, the S&D secured key posts for its MEPs and made sure its issues will be on the agenda for the next two years. The deal ensured the S&Ds support for Metsola.

The European Left proposed a feminist candidate which they insisted marked a break from ‘system candidates’. GUE Co-president Manon Aubry added that Rego was a feminist candidate “marking a clear break from the system candidates 40 years on from the presidency of Simone Veil... now we have a candidate who is in favour of abortion.”

The other candidate was former Swedish minister Alice Bah Kuhnke for the Greens.

Election procedure

The president is elected to the office for a renewable period of two and a half years.

During each legislative term, a first election is normally held in July, immediately after the election of a new Parliament. A second mid-term election is held two and a half years later, in January.

Usually, at the sitting designated to elect the President for the mid-term election, the procedure is chaired by the outgoing President, or by one of the outgoing Vice-Presidents in order of precedence. But this year’s election is suis generis, as a sitting President has never died in the middle of their term.

The situation becomes all the more unclear as the First Vice and interim President, which is Roberta Metsola, is also contesting the election.

The president is elected by secret ballot from a list of nominees proposed by the different political groups.

The candidates are put forward before each round of the ballot, of which there can only be four rounds. Once the candidates are put forward, the person chairing the plenary announces the nominees.

To secure the presidency, a candidate must win an absolute majority of the votes cast, that is 50%+1. This can be less than the absolute majority of all MEPs because abstentions and spoilt or blank votes are not counted.

There can be any number of candidates during the first three rounds of voting, and no candidates are eliminated as the rounds go on. But since there can only be four rounds of voting, the fourth and final ballot is confined to the two candidates who obtained the highest number of votes in the third round. The candidate with the largest number of votes wins the presidency.