Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola has been elected to succeed David Sassoli as the president of the European Parliament.

She garnered 458 votes in the first round, well ahead of the 309 needed to get the post. There were 690 MEPs who cast their vote, of which 74 either abstained or invalidated their ballot paper.

Sweden’s Alice Bah Kuhnke (Greens) got 101 votes and Spain’s Sira Rego (radical left) got 57 votes. Poland’s Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, Eurosceptics) withdrew from the contest.

Yesterday, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, in Strasbourg for the David Sassoli ceremony, said, “I look forward to seeing Roberta Metsola elected president of the European Parliament. I am pleased that the government and my party are supporting her bid. We have always been supportive of Maltese people who have the best interest of our country at heart.”

Metsola will be the third woman to preside over the 705-member assembly, after France’s Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002).

In her speech after being declared the new President, she pledged to be a President for all, fighting euroscepticism, declaring that “Europe is back. Europe is the future.”