Labour MEPs not saying whether they will vote for Metsola for Parliament president

Labour MPs have declined to say whether they intend to vote for or against Roberta Metsola for a second term as European Parliament president on Tuesday.

Malta Time asked Alex Agius Saliba and newly elected MEPs Daniel Attard and Thomas Bajada on Monday how they planned to vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday, but they declined to say.

Agius Saliba’s silence is glaring, as he had declared during his campaign for the European Parliament that he “could never support Metsola for another term”, but a few weeks later Prime Minister Robert Abela publicly supported his candidacy for a second term.

Metsola is expected to be confirmed as president of the European Parliament for a second term on Tuesday morning.

All MEPs, including the six Maltese, will have to vote in plenary in Strasbourg and she needs 361 votes to remain in office.

She is once again the favourite after winning the nomination of the European People’s Party, the largest political family in the European Parliament.

Metsola has been a frequent target of Labour criticism throughout the election campaign, with Abela and several European Parliament candidates accusing him of fomenting conflict by calling for increased EU military and defence spending.

In an interview during the election campaign 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 I will not comment on Metsola as a Maltese, but on her term as President of the European Parliament for the last two and a half years. I could never, ever agree with her when she went to Israel and gave unconditional support to the Israeli government to commit genocide,” he told interviewer Reno Bugeja.

“I can never support Metsola and allow him to serve another term to do this kind of evil.”

Later, in a Facebook comment, he confirmed his decision, telling a voter that he stood by what he had told Bugeja during the interview.

But a few weeks later, the day after Metsola was confirmed as the EPP’s presidential candidate, Abela said: Malta Time he would support his nomination for a second term.

He said he “always supports Maltese people who go abroad to take up employment” and that he “will once again let the national interest guide (his) decision”.

“I would be inconsistent – and I would be adopting the position of the Leader of the Opposition – if I took a partisan position and put aside the national interest,” he said.

This echoes Labour’s long-standing call that its MEPs, unlike those of the PN, would never vote “against Malta” while in the EU.

If elected on Tuesday, Metsola will be only the second MEP to serve two terms as president, after Germany’s Martin Schulz.