On 18 January 2022,  MEPs elected Roberta Metsola of the European People’s Party as President for the second half of the current parliamentary term. With 458 yes votes out of 616 votes cast, Metsola received an absolute majority in the first voting round. Originating from Malta, the Conservative is the third woman holding this position and at 43, the youngest President in history. Metsola succeeds David Sassoli, who died on 11 January 2022, aged only 65 just before the end of his regular term. Besides Metsola, Alice Bah Kuhnke of the Swedish Greens and Sira Rego, a Spanish member of the Left Party, were also up for election. The President’s responsibilities include guiding all plenary activities, keeping order during sessions and signing bills into law.

Two Vice President appointments for Austria

Apart from the President, Parliament also elected 14 Vice Presidents. It is particularly pleasing that  two Austrian MEPs were elected Vice President: apart from EPP MEP Othmar Karas, who already held this position from 2012 to 2014 and has again been Vice President since July  2019, Evelyn Regner, S&D MEP and elected chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, has been elected Vice President for the first time. She calls herself an ardent trade unionist and is particularly committed to tax justice and the rights of workers and women in the EU: “In my capacity as Vice President I want to especially promote a transparent and diverse EU Parliament. An EU Parliament, which, as an employer, offers all people the same opportunities and reflects Europe’s diversity.”

Priorities of the new Parliament President

The newly elected Parliament President Metsola presents herself as defender of the state of law and as a combatant against corruption. She also wants to set her priorities on reducing carbon emissions, digitising the economy, strengthening the military and on stricter compliance with the rule of law in the EU. Delivering her first speech to Parliament, Metsola demanded that no effort should be spared to enthuse EU citizens for the European project again, whereby the Conference on the Future of Europe would be of particular significance. She also regards gender equality as a priority, as “twenty-two years ago, Nicole Fontaine was elected 20 years after Simone Veil. It will not be another two decades until the next woman is standing here!”

Metsola, a polarising figure

However, MEPs regard some of Metsola’s points of view as rather controversial: on the one hand, she supports the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, whilst vehemently opposing abortion on the other. Metsola rejected several reports and resolutions, which demanded access to safe abortion services and condemned legislative measures to restrict such access. In particular due to the new restrictive abortion law in Poland, this is a very volatile issue in the EU.

Criticism of political agreement

In the course of preparations for the presidential election, criticism was also voiced about the mode, since the change of the presidency from the Social Democrats to the Christian Democrats had been politically agreed upon. When announcing the newly elected President, the Co-Chairman of the Greens, Philippe Lamberts, called the election of the President not something Parliament could be proud of. The agreement between the large groups regarding the distribution of positions would harm the small groups. Hence, he called on Metsola to introduce a reform of the rules of procedure of the parliamentary statutes and to stipulate the minority rights in the legal texts.

Further information:

AK EUROPA: David-Maria Sassoli elected new EU Parliament President

EU Parliament: Roberta Metsola elected new President of the European Parliament

EU Parliament: The new European Parliaments Vice Presidents