Roberta Metsola, a Maltese MEP known for her pro-life stance, was elected to succeed the late David Sassoli (1956-2022) as President of the European Parliament (EP). She thus becomes the third woman to hold the position. Her first words as president were, “Europe is back. Europe is the future. Long live Europe.”
Against abortion
There is no future of Europe without children. On this issue, Metsola, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), should be strong. As noted in Euronews, the Maltese MEP, a 43-year-old mother of four, has also attracted attention, and even criticism, for her anti-abortion views, which are widely held in Malta, the only European Union (EU) country where abortion is still completely illegal. Metsola consistently votes against or abstains on resolutions that recognize abortion as a human right.
The Tarabella Report
In the EP, Metsola has already been able to demonstrate its pro-life position with facts. In 2015, for example, she voted against the Tarabella Report, which calls abortion a “fundamental right of women over their own bodies.” The center-right Maltese MEPs, including Metsola, then issued a statement to explain their vote in which they stressed that abortion represents a “red line”. And again, “We voted against the entire report to underscore our strong opposition to abortion and to express our serious reservations about attempts to violate the principle of subsidiarity.”
The Matić Report
Most recently, Metsola, in the summer of 2021, voted against the Matić Report, which demands universal access to abortion in all EU states. Metsola has always asserted her position, noting that abortion remains the prerogative of nation-state parliaments.
The Left trembles
A testimony to the goodness of Metsola’s election is the barrage of criticism she has received from left-wing MEPs. French Green MEP Damien Carême also stated that Metsola opposes “my political convictions on climate, Green Deal, migration, democracy and abortion. This is non-negotiable.” While the Left MEP Leïla Chaibi, also French, called the election of Metsola to the presidency of the EP “a disgrace”. And to think that the first woman elected to that office–Simone Veil (1927-2017)– in 1979, was the architect of the pro-abortion law in France when she was Minister of Health in 1975. Metsola’s election is a hopeful sign for the future of Europe.
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