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Metsola succeeds Italian socialist David Sassoli in the mainly
ceremonial role presiding over the 705-member parliament of the
European Union, after he died this month aged 65.
Metsola, of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP),
defeated two other female candidates, winning 458 of the 616
validly cast votes in the first round, meaning no run-off rounds
- normal practice for the presidency election - were required.
"Congratulations Roberta Metsola and indeed Happy Birthday,"
Pedro Silva Pereira said after announcing the result, which led
to a standing ovation in the chamber in Strasbourg.
Metsola, who turned 43 on Tuesday, said in a campaign message on
Twitter that it was time for the assembly to be led by a woman
and that it should connect with EU citizens beyond the "bubbles"
of Brussels and Strasbourg where it meets.
Sassoli had been due to step down this week as part of a
power-sharing deal under which parliament's socialist group
would make way halfway through the assembly's five-year term for
a candidate from the EPP grouping.
The European Parliament, which adopts and amends legislative
proposals and decides on the EU budget, has had only two female
presidents, Simone Veil and Nicole Fontaine, both French, since
it became a directly elected assembly in 1979.
A member of the European Parliament since 2013, Metsola
campaigned as a student for Malta to become a member of the EU.
A Mediterranean archipelago with a population of just over
500,000, Malta became the EU's smallest member state when it
joined the bloc in 2004.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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