She couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present. Maltese Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament on Tuesday January 18, the day of her 43rd birthday. Conservative MEP succeeds Italian David Sassoli in Strasbourg and Brussels by obtaining 458 votes from the 616 ballots cast (out of 690 voters).
Several candidates were in the running to replace the Italian, one of the oldest MEPs, who died on January 11 at the age of 65 and whose mandate was due to end this month. The parliamentary group of Swedish environmentalist MEP Alice Bah Kuhnke, former minister, has announced her candidacy against Spanish elected representative Sira Rego (The Left, radical left) and Polish MEP Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, eurosceptics). All will face the favorite of the ballot: the Maltese elected representative of the European People’s Party (EPP), Roberta Metsola. Here are four things to know about the Maltese elected official who at the same time becomes the youngest Speaker of Parliament.
1She has spent her entire career in the European institutions
Roberta Metsola, born in 1979, graduated from the University of Malta and the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). A lawyer by profession, she is “a pure product of the Brussels bubble”, summarizes the Politico site (in English). Speaking Italian and Finnish, the Maltese worked from 2004 to 2012 in the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union. Roberta Metsola headed the Justice and Home Affairs unit there, after having held the position of legal and judicial cooperation attaché.
The Maltese specialist in European law and policy subsequently collaborated with Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as legal adviser, specifies the European People’s Party in its biography * .
2She has been a MEP since 2013
Appointed MEP in 2013, replacing Simon Busuttil, Roberta Metsola thus became one of the first Maltese elected representatives sitting in Strasbourg. A member of the Maltese Nationalist Party, she was re-elected in the 2014 European elections with a record number of votes for a woman, underlines the think tank Bruegel*.
As a Member of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, where she is also coordinator for the EPP, continues Bruegel. The elected also participates in the special committee of the Parliament devoted to the fight against terrorism, as well as in the delegation for relations with the United States. The MEP also took part in the European Parliament’s commission of inquiry into the Panama Papers.
According to Politico*, Roberta Metsola is considered, within the Parliament, as one of the main MEPs specializing in migration issues. She was notably the co-author of the Parliament’s report on Europe’s response to the refugee crisis, specifies the media specializing in European policies*.
3She is opposed to the right to abortion
The candidacy of Roberta Metsola arouses controversy, because the MEP does not hide her positions of total opposition to abortion. As pointed out Release, the elected official continues to disapprove of the resolutions defending the right to abortion and contraception. Last September, the Maltese also abstained during a vote calling on the European Commission to criminalize violence against women, specifies The world.
His country, Malta, is one of the last two states in Europe where abortion remains illegal in all circumstances. The candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament has however promised not to defend her openly anti-abortion positions at the head of the institution, notes Release. And as Euractiv reminds us, the EU has no competence in matters of abortion.
4She wants to be “consensual” and defends the rights of LGBTQ +
Roberta Metsola “is consensual, except with the subject that makes us talk about it”, summed up with the magazine She a spokesperson for the Renew Europe parliamentary group. As noted The world, the MP has regularly defended the rights of LGBTQ+ people. “As a woman, I know how important it is to have allies in your struggles. (…) Europe is a zone of freedom”, she said in December, falls She.
According to the rebellious France MEP Manon Aubry, interviewed by the magazine, the Maltese candidate “has always defended a fairly strict sanitary cordon with the extreme right”. The elected also had more moderate positions than others, on the right, on the reception of refugees, recalls The world. She also called for the resignation of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in the wake of the death of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, murdered in October 2017.
*These links refer to pages in English.