EU lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to give conservative Maltese politician Roberta Metsola another term as president of the European Parliament.
Metsola won an overwhelming majority of 562 votes at the first session of the 720-seat parliament in Strasbourg, France. Metsola, who belongs to the largest political group in the parliament, the European People's Party, will be president for the next two and a half years.
Metsola's rival for the post was Irene Montero (Left Party, Spain). She won just 61 votes. Before the vote, both made brief statements in plenary.
In her speech, Metsola underlined the concept of continuity. "The European Parliament must not be afraid of change", she said.
In its tenth term, the European Parliament will have 720 seats, 15 more than at the end of the previous parliamentary term. 54% of MEPs are newly elected (in 2019, the share of newly elected MEPs is 61%) and 39% are women (compared to 40% in 2019).
Lena Schilling (Greens/EFA, Austria) (aged 23) is the youngest MEP and Leoluca Orlando (Greens/EFA, Italy) (aged 77) is the oldest.
At the start of the tenth parliamentary term, there are eight political groups, one more than in the previous parliamentary term. 33 Members remain independent. | BGNES
