Metsola’s appeal offensive jolts EU election marketing campaign to life – POLITICO

THE HAGUE — Roberta Metsola by no means explicitly requested for his or her votes, however the European Parliament president was clearly campaigning. 

“Ask me something,” she declared, kicking off a discussion board Thursday evening with a couple of thousand college students on the College of Leiden, breezing via questions on every thing from the battle in Ukraine to the Qatargate corruption scandal, and bringing a little bit of a rock star really feel to the packed lecture corridor.

The Maltese EU lawmaker was within the Netherlands on a two-day journey to drum up curiosity within the 2024 EU election — and, maybe, to spice up her personal profile amid rumors she is eyeing Ursula von der Leyen’s job working the EU’s govt. Notably, she made a pit cease Friday morning to go to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, one of many EU’s most senior leaders, who lauded Metsola as “efficient” and “sturdy.”

It was, basically, an unofficial marketing campaign beginning gun, kicking off a yr of political jockeying forward of the 27 nationwide votes that would spark a reshuffling of the EU’s prime jobs — and decide Metsola’s future. 

“It’s not sufficient that you simply vote, your mates must vote,” Metsola implored the scholars. “And in the event that they don’t wish to, ask me and I’ll contact them.”

Metsola solid herself extra as an envoy for EU democracy than a political campaigner. 

“Reasonably than a marketing campaign — after I was elected, I stated I needed to burst via the Brussels and Strasbourg bubble: That is what I meant, by being right here and doing this round Europe,” Metsola informed reporters Friday morning.

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Metsola, 44, linked simply with the younger crowd, reaping laughs and protecting the scholars’ consideration whereas telling a slew of non-public anecdotes about her first failed try to get elected as an MEP at age 24; her giant Maltese household (she has 4 sons, whom she drives to high school each day — and 26 first cousins); and her expertise being a girl in politics.

A former pupil of electoral legislation, she informed them she’s an elections wonk who devours political biographies. She is at present studying a ebook by erstwhile Obama speechwriter David Litt.

“The rationale why I’m right here is as a result of I wish to persuade you to vote, to doubtlessly run for elections, to struggle for a trigger you imagine in,” she informed the younger folks gathered there.

A Ukrainian pupil named Yana, 24, (who, like different college students interviewed didn’t present a final title) stated she had lived underneath the Russian occupation of Bucha — liberated precisely a yr in the past simply after Metsola visited Kyiv — and thanked the president for her assist. “Roberta may be very inspiring, very vivid, very easy-going. She appears very human,” Yana informed POLITICO after the speak.

Metsola’s views on migration and LGBTQ+ rights resonated with the shrewd pupil crowd, who additionally considered her go to — at simply greater than a yr to go earlier than the election — as being greater than merely a selfless plea for democratic engagement.

“You may see that she was already campaigning for 2024, as a result of first she informed us you may go and vote, and it’s necessary to make your politicians accountable for what they do,” stated Ilan, a 22-year-old French pupil going for a grasp’s in public administration.

“So I believe it was in all probability a means of claiming: I might be held accountable for my program and I maintain my guarantees,” he stated.

Isabel, a 21-year-old who’s finding out worldwide relations, stated Metsola’s private strategy was “very charismatic” — even whereas recognizing it as a concerted technique to attach with youthful voters like her. “For me, that’s all the time an indication this can be a politician, as a result of she’s making an attempt to sort of make us empathize along with her.”

Probably the most confrontational query of the evening got here from Gijs, a tall pupil in a white shirt and a black waistcoat, who stated: “If I say I did a Q&A with Roberta Metsola, most individuals will simply say: ‘Who’s that?’ So my query can be: What’s the European Parliament going to do to bridge the hole between the EU and the typical citizen?”

His query referred partly to an obvious hole between coverage and actuality within the so-called nitrogen disaster, the place Dutch farmers are strongly butting up towards EU environmental legal guidelines.

“We have to clarify it extra, I get that,” Metsola stated, including that not all the EU’s nationwide parliaments outdoors of the Netherlands have a wholesome sufficient tradition of debate round new EU legal guidelines and the way they’ll affect sectors like agriculture.

Requested Friday if her journey meant she was now formally in marketing campaign mode, Metsola stated: “Reasonably than a marketing campaign, after I was elected I stated I needed to burst via the Brussels and Strasbourg bubble: that is what I meant by being right here and doing this round Europe.”

After the Q&A, Metsola edged towards the exit amid a throng of scholars gathered round her demanding selfies.

The subsequent morning, she acquired a ringing endorsement from Prime Minister Rutte, regardless of the actual fact they’re from completely different political households on the EU stage. (Rutte is a part of the liberal Renew faction, whereas Metsola hails from the center-right European Folks’s Social gathering.) 

Rutte showered effusive reward on Metsola earlier than he invited her to his workplace, saying he’s “actually impressed” by her work as Parliament chief. “The best way you’re bringing your case to the European Council every assembly we’ve … may be very spectacular,” he informed her in entrance of reporters outdoors his workplace Friday morning.  

So ought to she turn into European Fee president or get a second time period as Parliament chief? “Clearly, what the state of play will likely be about all of the roles anybody will take after the election, we don’t know,” the Dutch chief stated.