Who is Roberta Metsola?

Roberta Metsola, 43, has been elected as the President of the European Parliament making her the youngest ever in its history

• The European Parliament has elected its 17th President, Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola from the European People’s Party (EPP), who also happened to turn 43 on the day of her victory.
• A lawyer with a specialisation in European Law, Metsola is the third woman President of the European Parliament following Simone Veil and Nicole Fontaine.
• Metsola was also Malta’s first female Member of European Parliament, who actively campaigned for inclusion of Malta in the European Union in 2003-04.
• While Metsola has been hailed as the right person for the job of the President given her pro-EU stand, LGBTQ+ activism and open borders approach, her views on abortion are controversial.
• Metsola’s victory was expected thanks to her swift rise in the European Parliament since being elected in 2013. In 2020, she was made one of the EU Parliament’s first vice presidents.
• "What we are looking for is a re-energised renewal of a Parliament that looks forwards with a very modern way of doing politics," Metsola said in her Presidential campaigns.
• Her victory has a bittersweet element as her predecessor, Italian MEP David Sassoli, passed away just a week ago. “I have a lost a friend, democracy has lost a champion,” she said.
• In this reading, we take a look at who Roberta Meltosa is, the politics around her election and why despite being progressive on many fronts, she has an anti-abortion stand?