On Tuesday, MEPs elected Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT) as President of the European Parliament until 2024. Metsola won 458 votes in the first round.
Roberta Metsola won the first round of the election, where she obtained an absolute majority of 458 votes out of 690 in a remote secret ballot, out of three candidates. At the beginning of the session, Kosma Złotowski (ECR, PL) withdrew his candidacy, reducing the number of candidates to three.
President Metsola will preside over the Parliament in the second half of the current term, until a new one is constituted Parliament after the European elections in 2024
Voting results
Robert Metsol (PPE, MT) 458
Alice Bah Kuhnke (Greens / WSE, SE) 101
Sira Rego (Left, ES) 57
Total number of votes cast: 690
Empty or invalid votes: 74
Absolute majority needed: 309
Who is Robert Metsola new President of the European Parliament
Born in Malta in 1979, Roberta Metsola has been an MEP since 2013 and is the youngest EP president ever elected. She became First Vice-President in November 2020 and served as President of Parliament following the death of President Sassoli on January 11 of that year. She is the third female president of the European Parliament after Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002).
Addressing the House immediately after its election, President Metsola said: “The first thing I would like to do as president is reflect on the legacy of David Sassoli. David Sassoli was a fighter; he fought for Europe and for us, for this Parliament. […] I will honor David Sassoli as president, always standing up for Europe, our common values of democracy, dignity, justice, solidarity, equality, the rule of law and fundamental rights. "
“I want people to regain faith and enthusiasm for our project. […] Dear Europeans, in the coming years, people across Europe will expect leadership and direction from our institution, while others will continue to test the limits of our democratic values and European principles. We have to fight an anti-EU narrative that is so easily and so quickly mastered. Disinformation and its increase even during the pandemic, fuel easy cynicism and cheap solutions to nationalism, authoritarianism, protectionism and isolationism - she added.
President Metsola emphasized that "Europe is exactly the opposite. The idea is for all of us to put in a good word for ourselves by bringing our people closer together. The point is that we all defend the principles of our mothers and founding fathers that led us from the ashes of war and the Holocaust to peace, hope and prosperity. Twenty-two years ago, Nicole Fontaine was elected 20 years after Simone Veil. It won't be another two decades for another woman to stand here, she said.
About the President of Parliament
The President of Parliament has a wide range of executive and representative powers, as set out in Art. 22. In addition to these duties, the powers of the President extend to "all the powers necessary to preside over and ensure that Parliament's debates are properly conducted". A key example of this is the decisions that have ensured the smooth running of Parliament since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article 14 of the Treaty on European Union states that Parliament shall elect its President from among its Members. Since the first European elections (general election) in 1979, each president holds office for a renewable period of two and a half years. This means that there are usually two presidents for each term of office. Since the establishment of parliament in 1952, there were 31 chairmen, 17 of whom had been in office since 1979.
Source: European Parliament
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