EU socialists call on EPP to see Meloni’s ‘true face’

4 months ago 14

The EU socialist party (PES) has reacted strongly to German CDU lawmaker Jens Spahn’s statement, which hinted that the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) could work with hard-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

In an interview with Euractiv earlier this week, Spahn said, “The ‘firewall’ – that potential partners of the EPP must be pro-European, pro-NATO, pro-rule of law and pro-Ukraine – runs to the right of Meloni’s party in the European Parliament.”

Giacomo Filibeck, the PES secretary general, told Euractiv that if Spahn believes that Meloni does not represent the far-right, “I invite him to watch the VOX Congress of last Sunday again”.

“Giorgia Meloni, showing herself next to Orbán, Le Pen, Abascal, and Ventura, reveals her true face. We socialists and social democrats stay faithful to ourselves and will never cooperate with the far-right. This is what is to be expected by all democratic parties”, the EU socialist official said.

The EU socialists have clarified that they will not sit at the negotiating table for a pro-EU majority after the next European Parliament elections if any member from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) or far-right Identity and Democracy is also present.

Meloni’s Brother of Italy party belongs to the ECR, but at last Sunday’s congress of the Spanish far-right VOX party, she expressed her will to unite Europe’s right parties.

“We are focusing on the name of the President of the European Commission, but the real challenge is to build a different majority than the one we have seen in the last five years, which is an unnatural majority between the European People’s Party and the Socialists,” Meloni said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended the same event in a “joint battle” against Brussels.

Many suggested that the common presence at the VOX congress could indicate a collaboration between the hard-right ECR and far-right ID groups in the European Parliament after the June elections.

(Olive Noyan, Sarantis Michalopoulos – Edited by Alice Taylor)