Social and Democrat MEPs will be quizzing Roberta Metsola over her "unacceptable" views on women's rights and social justice, before deciding whether to back her bid to become European Parliament president.

The PN MEP is on track to take over the presidency from David Sassoli in January, after it was reported earlier this week that he will not be seeking a second term as European Parliament president. 

Metsola was elected as the EPP's candidate for the presidency on November 24, comfortably beating two other candidates for the nomination, Austrian Othmar Karas and Dutch Esther de Lange.

Historically, the EP presidency rotates between the EPP and S&D groupings. 

Metsola to face S&D peers in second week of January

While the S&D has said that it will not field a candidate, it has not said that its MEPs will be backing Metsola. 

On Friday, S&D leader Iratxe García Perez said the group will be organising a hearing in the second week of January to grill Metsola, before deciding on its vote.

“I have already started negotiating with EPP leader Manfred Weber to see if we can reach an agreement to rebalance the S&D representation in the European Parliament and strengthen our political priorities.

“We also want to listen to the EPP candidate proposed to chair this house, because some of her viewpoints are unacceptable to us.

"We will invite Roberta Metsola for a questioning session in front of our MEPs, where they can pose the questions and raise the concerns they have, and we expect commitments and clarifications on some important issues such as women rights, tax justice, the rule of law and social justice."

She noted that the group's support for an EPP candidate to chair the parliament depended on whether it was possible to set an agenda that reflected the priorities of the Socialists and Democrats' political family.

Earlier this week Politico also reported on Metsola's presidency prospects, claiming that Metsola's position on abortion rights remained a "contentious" issue for many MEPs.

Metsola has voted against many Parliament resolutions defending abortion rights and often referred to the issue as a national competence, according to officials who spoke to Politico.

However Labour's MEP Alex Agius Saliba, who has this week been elected a vice president of the S&D Group, has a similar voting record to Metsola on abortion. 

He has previously said he is against abortion and would oppose any efforts in the European Parliament to introduce abortion in Malta.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.