“Roberta Metsola took control of the European Parliament at a difficult moment: a month before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and just a week after the death of the institution’s former President David Sassoli.”

“At the time, questions were raised about the Maltese politician’s youth (43 when she took on the post, Metsola was the youngest-ever Parliament president) and her stance on abortion (in Malta, the procedure is still illegal in most cases). But over the past two years, Metsola has steered the institution through turbulent times and positioned herself as a credible candidate for a second term.”

Alongside the Maltese EP President, the list featured figures like Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – who was dubbed the most powerful person on the continent, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the controversial Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Politico mentioned Metsola’s brave and strong position against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, mentioning that she was the first president of an EU institution to visit Ukraine after it was invaded and “strongly championing the war-struck country’s efforts to join the EU since”.

“Metsola has also been on a mission to get young people to care about EU elections. The lawmaker, who first tried (and failed) to become an MEP in her mid-20s, has toured the EU, seeking to connect to young crowds — and her rock-star reception in some quarters has driven rumors that she could be angling to switch from one top EU job to another (assuming Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t get a second term in the Commission presidency).”

Yet, the newspaper said that her most challenging mission has been to “steer her institution through the Qatargate scandal the year before the EU election, amid lurid revelations that MEPs allegedly took bribes from Qatar and Morocco”.

“In response to the saga, Metsola proposed a list of (modest) reforms to beef up transparency and integrity rules, which MEPs recently largely green-lit.”

“Don’t expect that to be the end of it,” it continued. “Euroskeptics now have piles of mud to fling during the EU election, when they will seek to cast Brussels as hopelessly corrupt.”

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