EU | The new European Parliament meets for the first time – to vote on the extension of Roberta Metsola’s term

European the parliament will vote on Tuesday Roberta Metsola about a possible extension as Speaker of the Parliament. The vote will take place in a plenary session in Strasbourg, where the new parliament meets from Tuesday to Friday for the first time since the EU elections.

The Maltese Metsola comes from the coalition’s umbrella party EPP. The Finnish spouse explains the last name, which sounds good to the Finnish mouth.

Metsola has been respected as speaker across party lines, and he is also expected to get an extension as speaker for the next 2.5 years.

Among other things, the Speaker presides over parliamentary proceedings. He is elected in a secret ballot with an absolute majority of votes.

After the election of the Speaker, the Parliament elects 14 Deputy Speakers.

Later in the week, the European Parliament will also vote for the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen from the next season. That vote has been rumored to be potentially tight, even though the so-called middle groups in the parliament who agreed on the nomination package for the EU’s top polluters still have a majority in the parliament.

The center groups include the center-right EPP, the center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the liberal Renew. Since von der Lyen cannot count on getting support from all the members of the groups, he would also have to get votes from the Greens or from the home group of basic Finns, the European Conservatives and Reformists, or ECR, just to be sure.