As the newly-elected European Parliament gathers in Strasbourg for its inaugural sitting on Tuesday, its first task will be to elect its president.

That vote is looking unlikely to be contentious, with current president Roberta Metsola set to cruise through to a second term unchallenged.

Although the Left has fielded a challenger candidate, Spain’s Irene Montero, her bid is merely symbolic and will not obstruct the incumbent’s path to re-election.

That’s because Metsola has managed to draw consensus from across the parliament’s fractious political divides at a time when ideological rifts seem deeper than ever in the parliament’s hemicycle. It means she’s tipped to comfortably secure the needed absolute majority of ballots cast.

A Conservative Christian-democrat belonging to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), Metsola is credited with steering the parliament through one of the most tumultuous periods in its 70-year history – including the eruption of war on Europe’s doorstep and the most explosive corruption scandal to ever hit the institution.

Several parliamentary sources told Euronews that her performance over the past two years has seen her brush off initial qualms about her candidature, which were mainly centred around her anti-abortion views.

“At the beginning of her term, I was sceptical because of her stance against abortion rights. I was afraid we would have a very Conservative lady in the presidency,” a Green MEP re-elected to the chamber in June’s European election said.

“But she has proven to be a well-intentioned president, with an impressive attention to detail,” the MEP added.

“She has managed to make parliament more visible and stronger during her last mandate,” another MEP from the Green group added. “She is a great ambassador for the European Parliament in the world.”

“Metsola is the right person to lead this parliament,” a Socialist lawmaker said.

Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election as president of the EU’s powerful executive – to be decided in a vote on Thursday – is meanwhile looking much more shaky, prompting some to question whether Metsola herself would be a more palatable candidate for the role.

A spokesperson for the Left group conceded that despite fielding its own candidate, it was not whipping its members to vote against Metsola – as it will do in the case of von der Leyen – adding that some members could support Metsola because of her strong tenure.

A presidency of firsts

In 2022, Metsola became the youngest person to preside over the European Parliament at the age of 43, when she took over following former president David Sassoli’s death. She was also the first Maltese to take the parliament’s helm, and the first woman in two decades.

Since then, her time in office has been marked by many firsts. In April 2022, she became the first EU leader to visit Kyiv after Russia launched its illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Other historic milestones during her time in office have been tougher to grapple with.

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In December 2022, she became the first president to participate in a police raid on a fellow lawmaker when she accompanied officers to the home of Socialist MEP Marc Tarabella as part of the so-called Qatargate corruption probe that has since become one of the most sordid stains on the parliament’s reputation.

In response to allegations Qatari, Moroccan and Mauritanian officials had paid elected lawmakers to influence EU legislation, Metsola said that the European Parliament had come “under attack.” “Enemies of democracy” had “weaponized” Members of the European Parliament, she said.

Metsola, who has made fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law a core tenet of her political career, has since vowed to futureproof her institution against corruption with a raft of reforms designed to ramp up transparency and ethics rules.

But for some lawmakers, the reforms steered by the president have simply not been sufficient.

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“We welcome that she has followed many of our calls in the wake of Qatargate, but there is still much to be done in the Parliament on transparency, accountability, and preventing undue influence. We hope to see further action from her in this mandate,” a spokesperson for the Green group said.

A bulwark against the far right

Lawmakers are also satisfied with the way Metsola has defended mainstream political forces against the surge of the far right, by sanctioning radical right-wing lawmakers prone to disrupting the parliament’s plenary session.

Ahead of June’s European elections, Metsola criss-crossed the continent in a bid to encourage voters to cast their ballots while promoting the achievements of the bloc, calling on voters to put their trust in pro-European parties in the centre-ground in a bid to fend off rising populist forces.

In contrast, her counterpart in the EU’s executive, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was slated for her open overtures to the hard-right grouping of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the run-up to July’s election.

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It sparked outrage among her traditional allies. While she has since rowed back on her suggestions she would integrate parts of the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in a future coalition, left-leaning lawmakers are still nervous her EPP party could be lured to rely on right-wing votes to push through legislation in the upcoming term.

“Von der Leyen has promised there will be no structured alliances with the ECR and the far-right, but it’s for me still not 100% clear what this means,” an MEP for the Greens group said, adding that Metsola’s conduct rejecting far-right populists has been more clear-cut.

Breaking the glass ceiling

A source close to Metsola from the EPP described her as one of many “powerful women” that have led Europe in recent decades, alongside Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen.

Metsola has always tirelessly encouraged women and girls to break the glass ceiling in politics, and has championed equal rights across sectors.

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But despite her steadfast support for women’s rights, she also has a track record of voting against abortion rights.

Several left-leaning and centrist lawmakers cited these ideologies as the only drawback in her re-election bid. But since assuming the presidency of the European Parliament, she has vowed to respect the hemicycle’s majority opinion on abortion, putting her own personal stance to one side.

Even for lawmakers that have constantly fought for abortion rights – including with a resolution in April calling to include the right in the EU Fundamental Rights Charter – Metsola has done enough to assure that she will not assert her own views on abortion as part of her role as president.

Prime Video on Monday unveiled teaser footage, plot details and an Oct. 10 launch date for “Citadel: Diana,” the hotly anticipated spy show starring Matilda De Angelis (“The Undoing”) that is part of the “Citadel” franchise.

Details of “Citadel: Diana” – which marks the streamer’s most ambitious Italian original to date – were unveiled during a gala evening presentation of Prime Video’s Italian slate held in the palatial Villa Miani on a hill overlooking the Eternal City.

The six-episode series is set in a near-future Milan, in 2030, where eight years earlier the independent global spy agency Citadel was wiped out by Manticore, the powerful enemy syndicate that manipulates the world from the shadows. Since then, Diana Cavalieri (De Angelis) – who is an undercover Citadel agent – is alone, “trapped behind enemy lines as a mole in Manticore,” as the provided synopsis puts it.

When Diana finally sees a way out and the chance to disappear forever, her only way out is to trust “the most unexpected ally,” Edo Zani, heir of Manticore Italy and son of the head of the evil syndicate’s Italian unit who is vying for Manticore’s leadership against other European families.

Besides De Angelis, other previously announced “Citadel: Diana” cast members comprise Lorenzo Cervasio, Maurizio Lombardi, Julia Piaton, Thekla Reuten, Daniele Paoloni, Bernhard Schütz and Filippo Nigro.

“Citadel: Diana” is directed by Italy’s Arnaldo Catinari (“Suburra: Blood on Rome”) and developed by Alessandro Fabbri (“1992”), who is also the head writer and wrote the series with Ilaria Bernardini, Laura Colella, Gianluca Bernardini and Giordana Mari.

The high-end show is produced by Amazon MGM Studios with Cattleya, the company that is part of ITV Studios known for standout crime shows such as “Gomorrah” and “ZeroZeroZero.” The “Citadel: Diana” showrunner and executive producer is Gina Gardini – who shepherded both of the above series at Cattleya – with Riccardo Tozzi, Marco Chimenz, Giovanni Stabilini and Emanuele Savoini also serving as executive producers. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot and Scott Nemes from AGBO, alongside David Weil (“Hunters”) also executive produced “Citadel: Diana” along with all series within the world of “Citadel.”

Midnight Radio, the producing team of Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, also has executive producer credit on all installments within Prime Video’s global spy franchise.

“Citadel” originally debuted in April 2023. The series is meant to serve as a launch pad for multiple shows set in different countries that will all be connected via plot and characters. Besides “Citadel: Diana,” which will be this Italian series, an Indian series titled “Citadel: Honey Bunny” is also currently in the works.

The other two, previously announced, standout series in Prime Video’s Italy slate are:

During its Rome presentation, Prime Video also announced several new Italian original movies, including Christmas comedy “When Santa Claus” (“Natale senza Babbo”) directed by young hotshot helmer Stefano Cipani (“My Brother Chases Dinosaurs,” “Fedeltà”). Produced by Amazon MGM Studios with Gaumont Italia, it stars Alessandro Gassmann (“Transporter: Extreme”) as Santa Claus, who is having an existential crisis and decides to take a vacation, leaving his wife, played by Luisa Ranieri (“The Hand of God” to have to roll up her sleeves to save the most special day of the year. Prime Video will release “When Santa Claus” globally on Dec. 25, 2025.

Other new Italian original movies in the Prime Video pipeline include romantic comedy “Non è un paese per single,” which traslates as “It’s not a country for singles.” The movie is based on a book by the same title by a popular Italian author whose pen name is Felicia Kingsley. Her novels are published in 16 countries. Produced by Amazon MGM Studios with Lucisano Media Group, the rom-com is directed by Laura Chiossone, who helmed the Italian Christmas comedy “I Hate Christmas” for Netflix. 

Also coming to Prime Video globally from Italy is young adult romance “Love Me Love Me,” an adaptation of the first novel by Italy’s Stefania S, also a pen name, whose eponymous Wattpad trilogy has over 19 million reads, according to Prime Video. Written by Veronica Galli and Serena Tateo, “Love Me Love Me” will be co-produced by Lotus Production, which is part of Leone Film Group, and Amazon MGM Studios, with the support of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios.

• Police in Kenya said they have arrested the main suspect after nine dismembered bodies of women were found in a quarry in the capital, Nairobi.
• Collins Jumaisi Khalusha confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, since 2022, according to the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
• Police said the bodies were discovered after relatives of one of the missing women claimed to have had a dream in which she directed them to search the quarry.

Police in Kenya said Monday they have arrested the main suspect after nine dismembered bodies of women were found in a quarry in the capital, Nairobi.

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, had confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, since 2022. They gave no evidence to support his claim of killing 42.

He was expected to be arraigned in court Tuesday.

KENYAN PRESIDENT DISMISSES CABINET MINISTERS AFTER WEEKS OF PROTESTS

Police said several smartphones and identity cards were found in his house a short walk from the quarry.

Police said the bodies were discovered after relatives of one missing woman claimed to have had a dream in which she directed them to search the quarry. The relatives asked a local diver to help, and he discovered the bodies wrapped in sacks.

Acting police inspector general Douglas Kanja said officers in a nearby police station had been transferred to make way for investigations. Locals had accused police of negligence due to the proximity of the quarry and the unresolved missing persons cases filed there.

A statement signed by human rights groups over the weekend urged Kenya’s security agencies to “to expedite investigations into all reports of enforced disappearances.” There were initial concerns that the bodies could be linked to abductions and arrests of young people during recent anti-government protests.