The European Parliament holds the first session of its new term in Strasbourg on Tuesday, with lawmakers expected to re-elect Malta’s Roberta Metsola as president.

Ms Metsola from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is set to receive backing for another two-and-a-half-year term after her group won 188 seats in the European elections in June.

The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) came a distant second with 136 seats, while the environmentalist Greens and liberal Renew Europe groups both lost support and seats.

The election result was characterised by a shift to the right in the European Union and the striking reorganisation of far-right groups in the parliament in the aftermath.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has launched a new alliance of far-right parties, bringing together his Fidesz party and the far-right League party.

This is part of the Italian government and France’s National Rally (RN) to form the parliament’s third-biggest group, the Patriots for Europe.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) also announced the formation of a new right-wing group called the Europe of Sovereign Nations. The group is currently the smallest in the EU legislature, comprising 25 EU lawmakers, 14 of whom are from the AfD.

The parliament is already looking ahead to Thursday when the EU legislators will vote on whether to elect Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president.

Ms Von der Leyen needs a majority of 361 votes from the 720-member parliament to be elected. However, the vote, on a secret ballot, is set to be tight.

Pan-European political groups in the European Parliament were formed when political parties banded together from at least seven EU countries with a minimum of 23 EU legislators.

For this reason, groups can be fairly loose and are not guaranteed to vote as a single bloc every time in the parliament due to policy differences.

On Thursday, Ms von der Leyen is not guaranteed to gain every vote from her own group, the EPP, due to disagreements over the impact of climate policy on farmers, for example. 

(dpa/NAN)