The European Union and its various governmental structures have been looked upon with suspicion in recent years by proponents of traditional moral understandings of life, marriage and the human person.
But this week, the European Parliament, the EU’s only directly elected institution, chose as its president a 43-year-old woman from Malta who has become known for her outspokenness against abortion.
Roberta Metsola, who most recently served as first vice president of the European Parliament, was elected president following the sudden death last week of its president, David Sassoli. Metsola, a wife and mother of four boys, received 458 votes from the 750-member parliament.
Metsola, a member of the conservative European People’s Party, the Parliament’s largest political group, is the youngest president of the European Parliament and only the third woman to head the body.