Do we like them?

Do we like Roberta Metsola?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent record on LGBTQ+ rights and Ukraine, held back by her anti-abortion votes, the Gaza criticism and the EPP's right-leaning votes.

Roberta Metsola is a Maltese lawyer-turned-politician from the centre-right European People's Party. She became an MEP in 2013, a vice-president of the Parliament in 2020, and then president in January 2022, taking over after David Sassoli died. She won 458 votes and became the youngest ever president and the third woman to hold the job.

The biggest knock on her is abortion. Like all Maltese MEPs, she consistently votes against or abstains on resolutions that recognise abortion as a human right. When she took the top job she said the Parliament's position was unambiguous and was also her position, and that she'd back the chamber's majority view through her term. Her critics, including French MEP Manon Aubry, still see her record as a problem.

On LGBTQ+ people, the sources I could open show no campaign against anyone. Her office has called her a proud ally of the LGBTIQ+ community. In 2023 she was criticised by Labour MP Randolph De Battista for skipping Europride events in Malta, suggesting it was to avoid irking conservative party grassroots. Her office said she hadn't been invited to speak and was tied up with G7 speakers' meetings, a plenary and the UN General Assembly.

On Gaza, over 150 Maltese writers, academics, artists, activists and journalists signed a 2025 open letter accusing her of “complicity through silence” and selective outrage. They said she condemned the 7 October attacks fast but responded to Gaza with less urgency. The article carries no direct reply from her, only her words calling Israel's actions disproportionate. Where you land depends on whether you read that as careful diplomacy or as too little.

The recent fuss is about her centrism. In late 2025, centrist MEPs said the EPP had sided with far-right and right-wing groups on several votes, including blocking green rules and scrapping a rule-of-law mission to Italy. Her spokesperson said she stays neutral and defends the decisions of Parliament's majorities. That is the EPP's record, not her own words, but she presides over it, and it's why the by-association worry is a light asterisk and not a lean no.

Now she's eyeing a third term, which would be a first. Euronews reports the EPP seems set to back her, while the Socialists, who expect the presidency in the second half of the term, say they won't accept it. She also told a Maltese party event that her side must win the 2029 EP and council elections.