Le Pen or liberals? Italy’s right at odds over post EU election alliances

Right-wing Forza Italia Vice-President Antonio Tajani (EPP) and far-right Lega leader Matteo Salvini (Lega/ID) differ widely on how to approach next year’s EU elections, with Tajani closing the door on French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Germany’s far-right party AfD, while Salvini dreams of a united “centre-right” in Brussels is similar to the Italian government.

Tajani and Salvini are deputy prime ministers in the current coalition government in Italy led by conservative Giorgia Meloni (ECR).

Tajani is pushing for an agreement with the liberals (Renew) that would exclude Salvini’s allies in the European Parliament, while Salvini is gripping onto the unity of his group in Brussels, Identity and Democracy (ID).

To face the challenge of the European elections, Salvini, also the Infrastructure Minister, has launched a “centre-right pact” involving Le Pen (Rassemblement National/ID) and German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, ID).

“To exclude anyone a priori from the centre-right alliance is short-sighted. The wind is clear and tricky, and the European elections will be decisive. The doors should not be reopened to socialists and an Ursula majority”, Salvini said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

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Salvini and Le Pen were supposed to meet on Monday in Rome, but Le Pen, Salvini’s historical ally, cancelled her trip due to ongoing riots in France.

“Marine Le Pen is appreciated by a large segment of the French people and for years has represented the main centre-right force in France […] In fact, she behaves like the League in Italy. I would add that she, unlike others, has never insulted Italy”, said Salvini.

Meanwhile, Tajani is pushing for an alliance between the EU centre-right (EPP), Conservatives (ECR) and Liberals (Renew) – the same alliance that elected him president of the European Parliament in 2017 and categorically rules out a deal with Le Pen and Germany’s AfD.

“I want to be very clear, I am also vice-president of the EPP: for us, any agreement with AfD and Mrs Le Pen’s party is impossible”, Tajani told Rai3.

However, the doors remain open for ally Salvini.

“Lega is something quite different. We would be happy to have Lega part of a majority, but without Le Pen and Alternative Für Deutschland”, the minister reiterated, calling them “anti-European parties” and therefore irreconcilable with the EPP.

On the side of the liberal group Renew, French President Emmanuel Macron is the spearhead.

While Macron is Le Pen’s political opponent, he is also part of a government that has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The most recent case is that of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who called Meloni ‘incapable’ of managing the migratory phenomenon in Italy.

The retort to Tajani’s words comes in a note from Lega MEPs Marco Zanni – president of the ID group – and Marco Campomenosi – head of the Lega’s delegation to the European Parliament.

“Does our friend Tajani prefer to continue governing with the Democratic Party (PD/S&D), socialists and Macron? Lega is working to change the majority in Europe and to give life, at last, to a united centre-right project, capable of giving concrete answers to citizens after years of misgovernment by the Left”, Zanni and Campomenosi wrote in the note.

“We ask for more respect for our colleagues in the ID group: it is precisely thanks to the votes of our French allies of the Rassemblement National (RN) and German AfD if, together with the EPP, we were able to reject the latest ‘green euro-folly’ not later than last week”, they add.

On Salvini’s proposal to unite the centre-right, Meloni said in an interview with Corriere della Sera that “there is time to reflect”.

The prime minister will be in Warsaw on Wednesday for a seminar of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group of which she is president, where inevitably, the new alliance to be built in the European Parliament will also be discussed.

(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)