Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she would run at the top of her far-right party’s list in June’s European elections.
“I have decided to run to head the list of Fratelli d’Italia,” Giorgia Meloni said at a congress of her post-fascist party in the Adriatic town of Pescara.
Highly ranked in sales intentions
Giorgia Meloni’s party came first in the 2022 elections in Italy with 26% of the vote, and voting intentions remain at this level as the European elections on June 6-9 approach.
The far right is seen on the rise in several EU countries before this election, particularly in France where polls place the National Rally (RN) in the lead with around 30% of voting intentions.
“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022: create a majority that unites the forces of the right to ultimately send the left back into opposition, even in Europe! », declared the head of government.
“I am also leader of the European conservatives”
She announced that she would be at the top of the European list after an hour-long speech during which she praised the efforts of her coalition, in power for a year and a half, to fight illegal immigration, defend family and Christian values.
“I do it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we do in Italy and what we do in Europe,” she said.
“I do it because in addition to being president of Fratelli d’Italia I am also leader of European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing European politics,” she said.
Competition
Giorgia Meloni’s party will however de facto compete in the European elections with its coalition partners which are the League, the far-right party of Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, and the conservative formation Forza Italia, founded by the former Prime Minister now deceased Silvio Berlusconi, and led by Antonio Tajani, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The coalition in power in Italy is experiencing disagreements in particular over its attitude towards Russia, between Matteo Salvini, willingly lenient towards Moscow and declared admirer of Vladimir Putin, and the head of diplomacy Antonio Tajani. Giorgia Meloni is reputed to be Atlanticist, a position which contrasts with that of the majority of European far-right groups, first and foremost the French National Rally (RN).
The League, allied at European level with the French National Rally and the German AfD, is credited with around 7% of voting intentions.
A choice to make
Forza Italia is credited with 8% in the latest polls.
Giorgia Meloni will be forced, according to the rules of the European Parliament and after the election, to choose between her position at the head of the Italian government and her mandate as an MEP.
Registering at the top of the list to strengthen his party’s campaign, even if it means giving up the parliamentary mandate as soon as the election is over, is a process already used by Matteo Salvini in 2019.