Anti-abortion MEP Roberta Metsola favourite for European Parliament presidency
Anti-abortion MEP Roberta Metsola is the favourite to succeed David Sassoli as the European Parliament president.
Metsola, a member of the right-wing EPP group from Malta, is among four candidates for the position, alongside Spain's Sira Rego (radical left), Poland's Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, Eurosceptics) and Sweden's Alice Bah Kuhnke (Greens).
Each will make their case to their fellow MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday to succeed Sassoli, who died on 11 January and whose term of office ended this week.
Metsola has been an MEP since 2013 and a vice-president of the Parliament since 2020. The conservative lawmaker recently gained visibility by taking over from Sassoli, who was absent from the Chamber for several weeks due to illness.
But the mother of four has also drawn criticism from some of her colleagues for her anti-abortion views, which are widely held in Malta, the last EU country where abortion is still completely illegal.
Aware of the reservations she has aroused on this issue, she assured that if elected, her "duty will be to represent the position of the Parliament", including on sexual and reproductive rights.
Traditionally, mid-term elections to the European Parliament have almost always alternated between left and right.
Metsola, 43, was initially expected to benefit from the agreement between the three main political forces EPP, S&D (social democrats) and Renew Europe (centrists and liberals): the groups had agreed in 2019 to support the candidacy of Sassoli, a socialist, and for an EPP candidate to take over for the second half of the legislature.
But in view of its recent electoral successes, notably in Germany, the S&D group questioned its support, with group chairwoman Iratxe García explaining that she wanted to
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