Roberta Metsola’s balancing act

As president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola holds one of the highest offices in the EU. This said, her role is far more symbolic than executive. She is not a prime minister or foreign minister, but, rather, the custodian of the parliament’s voice – an institution that itself has no direct say over foreign policy, which remains jealously guarded by the European Council and national governments.

Within these constraints, Metsola has consistently tried to uphold European values, even if the expectations laid on her shoulders often exceed her remit. Nowhere is this tension more evident than in her public positions on Ukraine and Gaza.

Critics, of whom there are legion (and more on them later), point to a perceived double standard: her forthright support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion as opposed to her more cautious, or worse, muted stance on Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

To my mind, this misses the complexity of both conflicts – and the unique pressures on Metsola as a Maltese politician, a European leader and a representative of 705 MEPs from across the political spectrum.

Metsola’s stance on Ukraine is unambiguous and rooted in the foundational principles of the European Union: territorial sovereignty, the rule of law and the right of peoples to determine their own future.

From the earliest days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, she travelled to Kyiv, becoming the first leader of an EU institution to do so after the bombs began to fall. Her words were clear: “Ukraine is Europe, and your nation’s future is in the European Union.”

This strong position reflects a moral imperative and consensus across the European political mainstream. Russia’s invasion was a flagrant violation of international law, and Metsola’s vocal defence of Ukraine was echoed by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, European Council president Charles Michel and most EU heads of government. She was not out on a limb; she was channelling the voice of the parliament. She was doing her job.

Gaza presents a thornier challenge. Here, Metsola has condemned the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, in the strongest terms, calling them “terrorist atrocities” and affirming Israel’s right to self-defence.

She has also expressed concern about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, calling for adherence to international humanitarian law and stressing the need to protect civilians.  

To her critics, this smacks a bit of what many opportunists do with the hounds and the hares, and they are not backward in coming forward about it.

The European Parliament is deeply divided on Israel-Palestine, with sharp fractures not just between left and right but also within party families and national delegations.

In such an environment, grandstanding does little; bridge-building matters more, and Metsola has had to navigate institutional sensitivities and geopolitical realities.

The EU remains Israel’s largest trading partner. It is also a key donor to the Palestinians.

Within this context, her statements – though perhaps less emotive than some might wish – have sought to reflect a Europe that is both committed to Israel’s right to exist and alert to the suffering of Palestinians.

Roberta Metsola does not control sanctions or arms exports, nor does she negotiate ceasefires- Andrew Borg Cardona

About those critics: many, mostly Maltese, are fully paid(up) members of the trollosphere and their opprobrium is just so much puke, without any due respect to them. 

Others are perhaps somewhat miffed at Metsola’s current existence, after she declined to resign the office to which she was elected, to charge in on a crippled white horse in a likely futile rescue of a party whose only perceivable merit at this time is that it is not the other bunch, populist schemers that they are. Yet others – maybe unwittingly – are annoyed by her because she is of the centre-right (is she though?) and they are staunchly of the centre-left.

Whatever the reason for the criticism, what many don’t recall is that is easy to forget that Metsola is not a foreign policy decision-maker.

She does not control sanctions or arms exports, nor does she negotiate ceasefires. Her power is rhetorical, symbolic, procedural, and, yes, fine, she could use it to louder effect, I suppose. 

What the critics also seem to ignore is that Metsola is not the villain in Gaza – that position is reserved for Hamas and their enablers for sure, but also, and for many, many months now, for the thug Benjamin Netanyahu and his own enablers. What remains a source of desperate wonderment to me – and I’m not being too original in this – is how a nation founded as the Phoenix of the Holocaust can allow Netanyahu and his coven to do what they’re doing in their name.

Ultimately, charging Metsola with double standards oversimplifies what are two very different conflicts.

Ukraine is a sovereign state under conventional military attack from another state.

Gaza is the epicentre of a decades-long stateless struggle, complicated by terrorism, occupation and regional politics, turned into hell by vicious actors who have long eschewed any vestiges of humanity.

Metsola, in the eyes of her critics, must be more strident and I can see where the honest ones among them are coming from: the rest can rot in their vileness, as far as I’m concerned.

Upholding the core principles: the defence of international law, the protection of civilians and the belief in democratic values are easier in the Ukraine context and could be championed loudly and with clarity. In Gaza, in truth, they must sadly be negotiated with more care.

Within the constraints of her office, Metsola speaks when it matters – perhaps the volume needs to be enhanced. She already listens when it’s needed and she has to lead in a way that serves the whole of Europe – even as Europe itself is unsure of its own voice.

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t close with a somewhat ironic crack in Metsola’s further defence: at least, she didn’t nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Andrew Borg Cardona is a lawyer.