Metsola received a majority of 64,4 percent of the votes of her fellow EPP Group MEPs.

The decision on which candidate will represent the EPP was taken during a private meeting with MEPs.

Metsola announced her decision to throw her hat in the ring for the EPP nomination earlier this month, going up against Austrian MEP Othmar Karas, 63, and Dutch MEP Esther de Lange, 46.

She will now need to convince a majority of the parliament’s MEP to vote for her on January 17th.

Last week Nationalist MEP David Casa announced that he would be stepping down as the quaestor in order to give Metsola the best chance at succeeding.

The EP’s rules prevent individuals from the same political grouping and member state from both occupying a role within its Bureau, which as quaestor Casa did.

While Metsola is considered to stand a good chance of winning the January election, it is still likely to be an uphill battle.

Yesterday, Socialists and Democrats (S&D) president Iratxe Gaarcia Perez warned that the group – the parliament’s second-largest grouping after the EPP – was in no mood to give up the presidency without any concessions.

“No group is entitled to the presidency of the parliament as such. We don’t have to yield the presidency, because it does not belong to any political party – rather, it’s a decision taken by the parliament as a whole, and that’s the basis on which we will operate. Clearly, we’ll be demanding political balance.”

It is unclear whether the current president, the S&D’s David Sassoli, however, was reported to have told fellow socialist MEPs yesterday that he did not want to hand his job over to a member of the EPP, despite a deal in place for that to happen.

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