Labour's MEPs would not say whether they intended to vote in favour or against Roberta Metsola for a second term as European Parliament president on Tuesday.

Times of Malta asked Alex Agius Saliba and freshly-elected MEPs Daniel Attard and Thomas Bajada on Monday how they intend to vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday, but they would not say.

Agius Saliba's silence is conspicuous since he had said during his MEP campaign that he "can never support Metsola for another term", only for Prime Minister Robert Abela a few weeks later publicly backing her bid for a second term.

Metsola is set to be confirmed European Parliament president for a second term on Tuesday morning.

All MEPs, including the six Maltese ones, will need to cast their vote in a plenary sitting in Strasbourg and she needs 361 votes to stay in office.

She is the frontrunner once again after clinching the nomination of the European People's Party, the largest political family within the European Parliament.

Metsola was a frequent target of Labour’s criticism throughout the electoral campaign, with Abela and several MEP candidates accusing her of fomenting conflict by calling for an increase in EU defence and military spending.

During an interview on the campaign trail ahead of the MEP election, Agius Saliba was categorical about his intentions - he said he would never vote for Metsola for a second term.

"This time round I won't decide on Metsola as a Maltese person, but on her tenure as European Parliament president for the last two and a half years. I could never, ever agree with her when she went to Israel and gave unconditioned support to the Israeli government to commit genocide," he told interviewer Reno Bugeja.

"I can never support Metsola and allow her another term to do that kind of harm."

Later, in a comment on Facebook, he confirmed his decision, telling one voter that he was standing by what he told Bugeja in the interview.

But a few weeks later, the day after Metsola was confirmed as the EPP candidate for the presidency, Abela told Times of Malta he would back her nomination for a second term.

He said he “always supports Maltese people who go abroad to occupy a role”, and that he will “once again let the national interest guide direct [his] decision”.

“I would be inconsistent – and I would be adopting the Opposition leader’s position – if I took a partisan stance and sidelined the national interest," he had said.

This echoes Labour's long-time plea that their MEPs, unlike the PN MEPs, would never vote "against Malta" when in the EU.

If elected on Tuesday, Metsola would only be the second MEP to serve in the president's role for two terms, after Germany’s Martin Schulz.