The first session of the European Parliament opened on Monday evening in Strasbourg with a tribute to its late president, David Sassoli. The deputies must elect this Tuesday his successor. The controversial Roberta Metsola is the favourite.
Remarkable colleague, intelligent, knowing how to dialogue, respect and listen to the words of others: this is how Roberta Metsola is described by MEPs from different sides. The Maltese could become this Tuesday the third woman president of the European Parliament and thus succeed the deceased David Sassoli, who died on January 11 and whose term expired this month.
Three other candidates are in the running for the chair of the presidency of Parliament: that of the nationalist group CR, with the Pole Kosma Zlotowski; that of the left-wing group GUE, with the Spaniard Sira Rego; and that of the Greens, with the Swede Alice Kuhnke.
But the games are already made, or almost. In Strasbourg as in Brussels, European policy is above all the search for consensus. The election of Parliament is no exception to the rule. ” It is not only the election of the next president or the next president. What is most important is the central role that our political group will play “, explains the socialist deputy Javier Moreno Sanchez at the microphone of our special correspondent in Strasbourg, Juliette Gheerbrant.
The negotiations between the different groups lasted until the last minute and an agreement was reached between the conservatives, the centrists and the social democrats. The latter obtained five vice-presidencies. ” She’s very conservative, but I think she had that openness and got our message. She is committed to respecting and carrying the position in each theme of the majority of the Parliament “, reports Javier Moreno Sanchez.
Controversial positions
Mother of four boys, the dynamic young woman knows perfectly the mysteries of the European institutions. Elected vice-president of the European Parliament last year, she ensured the replacement of David Sassoli during his illness and now ensures his interim.
If his work is widely praised, his anti-abortion positions are controversial. Representative of a country, Malta, where abortion remains completely illegal, Roberta Metsola systematically votes against all the resolutions which defend the right to abortion and she even abstained from voting a text which asked the European Commission to criminalize violence against women last September.
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A law graduate, she studied at the College of Europe, in Bruges, and in 2004, still a student, sought a first term as an MEP, without success. She will eventually join the hemicycle in 2013, after having been attached in charge of justice and home affairs within the permanent representation of Malta to the European Union, then legal adviser to the European External Action Service.
Apart from her inflexible position on abortion, Roberta Metsola is considered progressive within the EPP, committed in particular to the rights of LGBT + people or defending the right of asylum. Nevertheless, 40 years after the mandate of Simone Veil, a president opposed to abortion is making some elected officials uncomfortable, including in the ranks of the groups that signed the agreement to bring her to the Presidency of Parliament. The number of abstentions will certainly be a good indicator.
Tributes to David Sassoli
The session of the European Parliament opened on Monday evening with a solemn tribute to its late President David Sassoli, much loved and respected in Strasbourg, beyond political affiliations. MEPs arrived in the hemicycle on Monday evening with a white rose in hand to salute his commitment, his availability and his humanity.
Roberta Metsola opened the ceremony. Enrico Letta, a close friend of David Sassoli, also spoke, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and all European officials. Even in the corridors, the emotion was there. Employees followed the ceremony on screens because they had not been able to access the hemicycle.
It is a very political session which begins. After the election of the President of Parliament on Tuesday, this session will be dominated by another political event: the speech of President Emmanuel Macron who will present to MEPs the priorities of the French Presidency of the European Union. Appointment is set for Wednesday morning.