Senior conservative German MEPs are mulling plans behind the scenes to promote Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola for the Parliament presidency in exchange for ensuring that Germans get key positions around her, and that MEPs from large delegations get prime Parliament posts, influential Politico reports today.

Metsola will face the election with two other contenders within the European People’s Party in her bid to become the EPP’s sole candidate for the post of President of the European Parliament – Esther de Lange and Othmar Karas.

Whoever is selected will have a good chance of assuming the top spot, based on an agreement struck several years ago to install a conservative president after one term under the left-leaning president, David Sassoli.

“For German conservatives, it would secure their voice in one of the EU’s top offices after being swept out of office back home. For Metsola, it would make her nomination a pre-cooked arrangement and weaken potential rivals,” Politico reports.

Without the support of senior German MEPs, it would be hard for Metsola to rise to such a high-ranking position, the report adds. 

The package deal, officials said, would include recruiting Michael Alexander Speiser, a German Parliament official and the husband of Weber’s current chief of Cabinet, as Metsola’s future head of Cabinet. It would also involve placing senior German MEPs like Rainer Wieland in several of the Parliament’s 14 vice-president slots.

Officials close to Metsola denied that the EPP has prepared any sort of “Metsola package,” with one official, saying there is “definitely no campaign team.”

Politico said the officials argued that Metsola “has worked hard to convince colleagues of her capacities, including the German delegation.”