Roberta Metsola – Photo © European Union 2022 – Source EP
(STRASBOURG) – Christian Democrat MEP Roberta Metsola of Malta won election to a two and a half year term as the European Parliament’s new president Tuesday, following the death last week of David Sassoli.
Addressing the House immediately after she was elected, the new president Metsola paid tribute to her predecessor David Sassoli, who passed away on 11 January.
“The first thing I would like to do as President is to think about David Sassoli’s legacy: he was a fighter; he fought for Europe and for us, for this Parliament. […] I will honour David Sassoli as President by always standing up for Europe, for our common values of democracy, dignity, justice, solidarity, equality, the rule of law, and fundamental rights”.
On the future, President Metsola underlined that “Europe is about precisely the opposite. It is about all of us standing up for one another, bringing our people closer together. It is about all of us defending those principles of our founding mothers and fathers that led us from the ashes of war and holocaust to peace, to hope, and to prosperity. 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”, she said.
The president of the European Parliament is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years, i.e. half the lifetime of a Parliament.The president’s role is to direct Parliament’s activities and chairs the Parliament’s plenary sittings. The president represents the European Parliament internationally and in its relations with the other EU institutions.
Born in Malta in 1979, Roberta Metsola who has been an MEP since 2013, is the youngest EP President ever elected. She became First Vice-President in November 2020, and was Parliament’s acting President after President Sassoli passed away on 11 January. She is the third female President of the European Parliament, after Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999- 2002).
