Agency Report
Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted Tuesday for a new speaker, with centre-right Maltese politician Roberta Metsola favourite to win despite controversy over her anti-abortion stance.
The election comes a week after the shock death of outgoing centre-left parliament president David Sassoli, who was due to step down as part of a power-sharing deal by the legislature’s main political groupings.
Metsola — a member of the largest bloc, the European People’s Party — is frontrunner to become only the third woman to run the parliament and the chamber’s youngest ever head at the age of 43.
“I am a woman from a small island in the middle of Europe’s southern sea. I know what it means to be the underdog,” Metsola said in her final appeal to lawmakers in Strasbourg.
