The European Parliament is widely expected to elect conservative Maltese lawmaker Roberta Metsola as its president on Tuesday, making her the EU assembly’s first woman president in 20 years, France 24 reports.
If elected she will succeed Italian Socialist David Sassoli who died earlier this month.
A stumbing block for Metsola could be her anti-abortion stance.
Along with Metsola, three other members of parliament had expressed an interest in the presidency ahead of the deadline for nominations at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday.
They were Sweden’s Alice Bah Kuhnke of the assembly’s Greens-European Free Alliance group, Poland’s Kosma Zlotowski of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Sira Rego of Spain, a member of the Left group.
