2024-07-16 13:49:41
562 of the 720 MPs who had gathered for the first session of the new EP convocation voted for Metsola.
61 MPs voted for Metsola’s rival Irene Montero, who was nominated by the extreme left.
Another 76 ballots were not filled out.
In total, 699 deputies participated in the vote.
Metsola, who represents the Maltese Nationalist Party, which operates in the largest EP faction, will hold the post for the next two and a half years.
Metsola has been a member of the EP since 2013.
She was elected as the chairman of the EP for the first time on January 18, 2022, after her predecessor Dāvids Sasoli, who represented the socialists, died while in office.
Metsola was the first of the leading persons of European Union (EU) institutions to visit Ukraine in 2022 after Russia’s repeated invasion, and she has repeatedly called on the bloc’s members to provide Kyiv with more military aid.
As early as Thursday, the EP is scheduled to vote on the candidacy of the current European Commission (EC) President Urzula von der Leyen for another term of office.
Von der Leyen needs at least 361 of the 720 votes to retain the position of EC president.
In 2019, when Leyena ran for the first term of office, she won the vote with a margin of nine votes.
Although the EPP represented by Leyen is the largest faction with 188 MPs, which together with the coalition partners – socialists and liberals – have an absolute majority in the EP, several MPs from these factions have announced that they will not support her candidacy in a secret ballot.
2024-07-16 13:49:41