Meloni to run in EU elections, wants to ‘send left into opposition’

7 months ago 29

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on Sunda that she will be running in the European elections as the only candidate for her party Fratelli d’Italia, hoping that her candidacy will help the right wing in the European Parliament and relegate the left into opposition.

Speaking at her party’s policy conference in Pescara, entitled ‘Italy changes Europe’, Meloni stressed her commitment to leading from the front.

“I have always considered myself a soldier, and soldiers, when necessary, do not hesitate to take their place at the front,” she said as she announced her sole candidacy for Fratelli d’Italia, despite having no intention of taking up a seat in the European Parliament if elected.

The move comes a week after Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein came under fire for standing in June’s European elections as a strategy to attract more voters despite not seeking a seat in the European Parliament.

While promising not to use her time as prime minister to campaign for the EU elections, Meloni, also president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), expressed optimism about bringing about change in Europe after the June elections.

“It’s time to raise the stakes. Let’s change Europe too,” she said, adding, “Think what we could do if conservative votes were decisive in forming the new European majority.

“We would be able to do in the EU what we have done in Italy and finally send the left into opposition,” she added.

“It is a difficult but possible task. We have to try. It would be a revolution. We want to bring the Italian model” to Europe.

Italy is ‘not the Hungary of Putin’s friends’

While Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party (S&D) criticised Meloni’s rhetoric for glossing over substantive issues, Carlo Calenda, leader of Azione (Renewal), warned that “her idea of Europe is the end of Europe”.

“We will fight against this ‘Orban disciple’ model in the European elections. Italy is a great founding country of the EU, not the Hungary of Putin’s friends,” said Calenda.

The latest Youtrend polls put Fratelli d’Italia in the lead with around 27%, followed by the Democratic Party (20%) and the Five Star Movement (16%).

Meloni’s coalition partners are trailing behind, with Forza Italia projected to win around 8% of the vote, slightly ahead of Matteo Salvini’s Lega.

(Alessia Peretti | Euractiv.it)