Pocketing 458 Votes, Roberta Metsola Elected Youngest European Parliament President

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola (Facebook/Roberta Metsola)

JAKARTA - A conservative Maltese lawyer who opposes abortion has been elected president of the European parliament, the first woman in 20 years to chair the assembly. Roberta Metsola, who celebrates her 43rd birthday on Tuesday, is the youngest European parliament president, winning a comfortable majority to serve a two-and-a-half-year term.

A former civil servant who was first elected in 2013, she is the first person from Malta, the smallest member state, to lead any EU institution. Metsola, a member of the centre-right European People's party (EPP), has served as interim president, following the sudden death of previous president David Sassoli last week.

The favorite to replace Sassoli since her candidacy was announced last fall, Metsola's victory has never been in doubt after the three largest parliamentary groups agreed to support her on the eve of the vote.

She won 458 of the 690 votes cast, easily defeating three rivals from smaller groups: the Greens, the radical left, and the conservative nationalist.

Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest group behind the EPP, gave their weight behind Metsola for the greater number of the 14 vice-presidential posts. Also joining the alliance is the center Renew group led by Stéphane Séjourné, an ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Roberta Metsola (Facebook/Roberta Metsola)

Renew's support is significant, as several French lawmakers have voiced doubts about Metsola's anti-abortion stance. The former diplomat won the doubt by pledging to represent parliamentary positions, rather than her personal views.

"My position is the European parliament. And on this issue, this European parliament, on all sexual and reproductive health rights, unambiguously, has repeatedly called for these rights to be better protected," she told reporters, citing The Guardian 18. January.

As parliamentary vice president, she said, she had passed a recent resolution condemning Poland's anti-abortion law. "I'm promoting it and I'm presenting it… That's what I'm going to do with all the positions taken in all these areas in all the member states."

Despite the skepticism, leftist political opponents have praised Metsola's stance in defending the rule of law and migrants' rights. Speaking to lawmakers, the co-leader of the Greens, Philippe Lamberts, said Metsola had "a lot of very good qualities".

She noted their disagreements about abortion and reproductive rights, but "many points of agreement too", about democracy, the rule of law, and refugees.

Roberta Metsola. (Wikimedia Commons/European People's Party)

Meanwhile, the Belgian Green MEP urged Metsola to reform the rules of the European Parliament by introducing a proportional representation system to end the backroom deal in carving out the top spot.

"This is not a very noble process. Because again, there are certain tastes that have to be met and this is to the detriment of small groups in the European parliament," she told lawmakers.

Born in 1979, Metsola says Malta's accession to the European Union sparked her interest in politics. The island nation joined the European Union in 2004, along with nine other mostly central and eastern European countries.

She graduated from the elite European College in Bruges, a training ground for EU officials, before working for the Maltese government in Brussels and later the European Commission. A mother of four, she describes herself as part of the "Erasmus generation", referring to the EU's higher education exchange scheme.

To date, only two women have served as presidents of the European parliament, serving as parliamentary presidents. Former French minister Nicole Fontaine led the agency from 1999-2002. She was followed by another French woman, Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and famous minister, who led the struggle to introduce abortion in France. Veil ran parliament from 1979 to 1982.

Metsola said in a speech to lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, she was standing on the shoulders of a giant. Parliament is important "for every woman in the union who is still fighting for their rights," she said, without mentioning the abortion controversy.

She also referred to the two journalists killed for reporting on their investigations, Daphne Caruana Galizia from Malta and Ján Kuciak from Slovakia, stating "to the Daphne and Ján families, your fight for truth and justice is our fight."