Defender of people with traditional sexual orientation, but opposed to abortion. An unwavering fighter for the rule of law in his home country Malta, but a much softer stance on similar issues in other EU countries. Proponents of the resettlement of migrants in the European Community and at the same time author of a parliamentary report, which never succeeded in resolving the refugee crisis in Europe.
All these contradictory assessments concern the Maltese Member of Parliament Roberta Metsola, who was today elected President of the European Parliament during a plenary session in Strasbourg. This happened on her 43rd birthday.
Roberta Metsola was convincingly elected with 458 votes in the first round. Her rivals were also women – the Swedish “green” MP Alice Bah Kuhnke and the Spanish Sira Rego from the radical left. Polish conservative Kosma Zlotowski withdrew from the race this morning.
Metsola inherited David Sassoli, who died just a week ago. The former Speaker of the European Parliament was ill for a long time and passed away due to complications in the immune system. His death, however, is no reason to change president. Already at the election of Sassoli in 2019, it was agreed that the Italian socialist would only sit for one term, after which he would be succeeded by a representative of the European People’s Party (EPP) – the first political force in parliament. And the election was scheduled for the current session – the first for the new 2022.
In the first statement since her election, Metsola said that Europe had a chance to become the first carbon-free continent and that the EU could take the lead.
“The digital transition is creating new opportunities and we need to stimulate these changes,” she said.
At the same time, the new MEP said that the world around the Community was not as friendly as it had been a generation ago, describing attacks on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as “unacceptable” and the situation in Belarus as “dangerous”. She highlighted collective security as a major challenge for the EU:
“For autocrats, the EU is a threat just because it exists,” she said, adding that everyone in the European Parliament would oppose any attempt to destroy it. “We must put an end to the division in the last divided country in the Community – Cyprus”
Who is she
Her full name is Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas. She has been a Member of Parliament since 2013 when she won the seat left by her compatriot and party member in the by-elections.
Interestingly, she ran for the first time in the EU elections in 2009 but failed to participate. The same thing happens with her Finnish husband Ukko Metsola, whose last name she bears. The two became the first married couple in history to perform for the EP from two different countries.
Metsola will lead the European Parliament until the end of her term in the spring of 2024. As soon as she decided to run in November 2021, she said that it would be a very difficult time for Parliament given the covid-19 pandemic.
“My goal is to make people in the member states believe in Europe,” Maltese said at the time.
And she promised to do so by building alliances and building bridges to pro-European forces in the EP.
Roberta Metsola is one of the most influential Members of Parliament. The fact that she does her job, even though she is the mother of four sons, also contributes to this. And she’s only 43 years old.
She is in fact not a new face for the EU. From 2004 to 2012, she was the legal attachรฉ at her country’s representation in the Union. She held the same position in the office of Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Contradictions
Opponents of Metsola point to her opposition to abortion. It is banned in conservative and Catholic Malta. But the people of the island nation also support this ban. As a Member of Parliament, Metsola has repeatedly voted against resolutions calling for women’s rights and access to abortion. She even opposed declaring abortion a human right. With which she drew the anger of MPs from the center and the left.
As a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Metsola fought for the resettlement of migrants throughout the EU. This was welcomed in Malta, one of the main points of entry into Europe by sea from the Middle East and Africa.
Metsola later produced a report calling for a more “comprehensive” EU migration strategy. To date, the 27 Member States have never reached a serious agreement on the issue.
At the same time, however, the Maltese MP has called for an inquiry by Frontex, the EU’s external border protection agency, into allegations of illegal deportation of migrants.
In his native Malta, Metsola is one of the most ardent critics of the ruling Labor Party over the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017. Galicia investigated high-level corruption.
But her opponent in Malta accuses her of acting too selectively. They point out that she voted against a European Parliament resolution on the rule of law in Slovenia. And in the former Yugoslav republic, it is the center-right that has the power, that is, the same party that Metsola sits in.
The Bulgarian footprint
Roberta Metsola became known in Bulgaria as a defender of ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. In October 2020, she tabled a number of amendments to the European Parliament’s resolution on the rule of law in our country. One claimed that protests against Borisov’s government last summer had been paid for by a businessman hiding abroad. Although his name was not mentioned, it was clear to everyone that it was Vasil Bozhkov.
Because of this, a stream of attacks from Bulgaria was poured over Metsola on social networks. She withdrew this amendment.
Although Parliament adopted the resolution, it also rejected Roberto Metsola’s second amendment. They attacked President Rumen Radev and his advisers Plamen Uzunov and Iliya Milushev, although their names were not mentioned.
/ ClubZ
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Source: sn.dk