EU lawmakers overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to give conservative Maltese politician Roberta Metsola another term as president of the European Parliament, in the first crunch vote on the EU's top jobs after elections in June.
Metsola won a massive majority with 562 votes as the 720-seat parliament met for its first session in Strasbourg, France, with new MEPs.
Metsola belongs to the biggest political group in the European parliament, the conservative European People's Party (EPP), and has been in the role since 2022.
"This must be a strong parliament in a strong union," Metsola insisted.
"We must be the ones who push the legislation that our people want and need."
She later vowed to address the problems facing EU citizens including Europe's "looming" housing crisis and promised to implement "proper" migration legislation.
"We will leave Europe a better place by creating a new security and defense framework that keeps people safe," Metsola said.
But all eyes will be on Thursday's vote when lawmakers decide whether to give von der Leyen another five years as commission chief.
Since EU leaders struck a hard-fought deal on her candidacy in late June, von der Leyen has been scrambling to win over lawmakers in the main political groups.
It could be a tight race. The polyglot German won by only nine votes in 2019.
"She needs to walk a fine line to get the support of different groups in the European Parliament," said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director of the European Policy Centre think tank.
Von der Leyen must satisfy lawmakers who do not want the European Union to swerve from its focus on cutting carbon emissions to tackle climate change, while other MEPs want her to reduce the number of new environmental regulations.
The far right made significant gains in June elections in the 27-country bloc, although the centrist coalition made up of the EPP, the Socialists, Democrats and Liberals is still the largest.
Von der Leyen's EPP is the biggest political group in the parliament, with 188 seats, and with its coalition partners in theory has the numbers to meet the 361-vote threshold, but several MEPs have said they will vote against her in the secret ballot.
New far-right group
A new group known as Patriots for Europe - created by Hungary's president Orban and including France's far-right National Rally (RN) - is now parliament's third-biggest faction, vying for two vice-president spots as well.
That group includes controversial figures such as Italian general Roberto Vannacci, author of a book featuring homophobic, misogynistic and anti-migrant remarks.
The far-right Patriots are a red line for the centrist coalition.
"We don't want these MEPs to represent the institution," said EPP spokesman Pedro Lopez de Pablo, adding there were talks to stop the "extreme right and the friends of Putin" from gaining prominent positions.
Patriots MEPs could also be excluded from leading parliamentary committees next week.
Patriots spokesman, Alonso de Mendoza, argued that a "cordon sanitaire" employed by mainstream political parties to block the far right was "undemocratic".
Analyst Kuiper said the "situation is still evolving".
The refusal of some MEPs to cooperate with the far right and von der Leyen's fate "are closely linked as several groups have flagged their opposition to support the radical right," Kuiper said.
(with AFP)
