trivialization of right-wing extremists
Juncker warns party friends against working with Meloni
March 7, 2024, 5:40 a.m
The European party family EPP is discussing how to deal with Italy’s Prime Minister Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia party. EVP boss Weber has no fear of contact. Now EU veteran Juncker is getting involved.
Former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is warning his party friends in the European EPP party family against close cooperation with Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “I am strictly against Meloni joining the EPP,” the Luxembourger told the Catholic newspaper “Die Tagespost”. This would be tantamount to trivializing the extreme right.
He admits that Meloni behaves more compliantly in Europe. Before the election, she did not hide her actual ideas, explained Juncker, who was Prime Minister of Luxembourg for many years before his term as EU Commission President from 2014 to 2019.
Weber praises Meloni’s Ukraine support
The CSU politician and EVP leader Manfred Weber, among others, had recently shown himself open to working with Meloni. He said last year that he shared concerns about the history of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party. Especially before the election, it was often described as “post-fascist”. But today we are talking to each other about how we can solve Europe’s big questions together as Europeans, said Weber. Meloni is constructive on the subject of Europe, stands on the side of Ukraine, and there are no problems with the rule of law in Italy.
Shortly before the EPP congress, which has been taking place since yesterday, Weber reiterated this position. “Why shouldn’t we work with right-wing conservatives like Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala?” he told “Welt am Sonntag”. In the newly elected European Parliament, selective cooperation with Europe-friendly conservatives is just as conceivable as cooperation with the Greens.
In addition to the German CDU and CSU, the EPP includes the Italian Forza Italia, Spain’s conservative People’s Party PP and the Austrian ÖVP. The Fratelli d’Italia MEPs are currently members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group. This also includes, for example, the national conservative Polish ruling party PiS and the former AfD MP Lars Patrick Berg from Germany.