Other MEPs running for the post include Spain’s Sira Rego, of The Left, as well as Polish conservative politician Kosma Zlotowski and Sweden’s Alice Kuhnke, representing The Greens, the spokesman added.

However, the position and possible candidates of the Social Democrats and Liberals, the two largest benches in the European Parliament, who have until Monday to publicly present their proposals, are still unknown.

Metsola, as first vice-president of the European Parliament, assumed the interim leadership of that forum when Sassoli died of pneumonia on January 11, and most observers believe she is likely to be elected.

The 42-year-old Maltese jurist is a member of her country’s conservative Nationalist Party as well as the center-right European People’s Party, and in November 2021 the latter grouping nominated her as its candidate to assume the presidency of the European Parliament.

ef/etc/rgh/ort