Italy’s Meloni keeps EU top job support under wraps

5 months ago 13

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday (15 June) refused to disclose whom she would back in the EU’s top job discussions next week.

“We will have a meeting on Monday, and we’ll see,” Meloni told reporters at the end of a G7 summit in Puglia, Italy. “We will also see what the evaluations will be on the other top roles,” she added.

Meloni’s guarded position came as leaders of France, Germany, and Italy were expected to informally discuss the matter on the sidelines of the G7 summit for the first time after the EU elections.

European leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels on Monday (17 June) to negotiate the EU’s top jobs, including whether incumbent European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will get a second term.

In last weekend’s European elections, von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) had strengthened its grip, but her reconfirmation is not a done deal.

Meloni is expected to back von der Leyen, but is unlikely to confirm that openly until Rome gains a high-level position, such as a deal on an important Commission portfolio in the next executive, said EU diplomats.

“What interests me is that (…) Italy is recognised for the role it deserves,” Meloni said when asked about Rome’s position in the top job discussions, adding she “will then make assessments.”

Speaking to reporters, she also said she hoped the EU would understand the “message” sent by voters in last weekend’s EU elections, after far-right parties such as her Brothers of Italy party, who made gains.

The EU should “understand the message that has come from European citizens,” Meloni stressed.

“Because if we want to draw lessons from the vote that everything was fine, I fear it would be a slightly distorted reading,” she added.

“European citizens are calling for pragmatism, they are calling for an approach that is much less ideological on several major issues.

Citizens vote for a reason. It seems to me that a message has arrived, and it has arrived clearly,” she said

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]