While in Rome, her coalition government puts forward the polemical markers of a hard right, the president of the Italian council, Giorgia Meloni, took her first steps abroad on Thursday, November 3 in Brussels in an atmosphere of appeasement. “I’m happy with the climate I found”said the leader around 8 p.m., after having chained meetings in a few hours with Roberta Metsola, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the leaders of the three institutions of the European capital – the Parliament, the Commission and the Council.
“From a personal, human point of view, a very frank and very positive exchange was created”, she added. An observation clearly shared by his counterparts. “It was a good opportunity to discuss crucial topics”thus underlined, in a tweet, Mme von der Leyen, referring in particular to Ukraine, energy and the issue of migrants. “The meeting confirmed that Italy will continue to play a central role in the EU decision-making process”, do we assure in the entourage of Mme Metsola. “She especially reiterated her intention to be a loyal and solutions-oriented partner within the EU”adds a senior European official.
“Talking directly with people can help unravel a narrative that has been constructed about me and the Italian governmentcontinued M.me Meloni. We are not Martians, we are flesh and blood people explaining their positions. » This last declaration illustrates the intentions of the new head of the transalpine government. “By going to Brussels for the first trip abroad, we want to send a strong political signal to show that Rome does not place itself in a conflicting perspective vis-à-vis the European Union”, it was underlined in the Italian executive before the visit, the main issue being, for Mme Meloni, of ” get to know ” with the leaders of the Union and to show good will, while its image as a eurosceptic precedes it.
First friction with Berlin
If, in his first political life, Mme Meloni had distinguished herself by radical anti-European commitments, her position evolved over her rise to power. The importance of the NextGeneration EU European recovery plan, of which Italy is the first beneficiary, to the tune of 200 billion euros, and which can only be renegotiated at the margin, makes any major confrontation with Brussels unlikely. . Finally, the Euro-Atlantic posture advocated by the party of Mme Meloni since the start of the Ukrainian war has been accompanied by a less confrontational approach to the Union. M’s positionme Meloni now consists of defending a “Europe of the Fatherlands”recognizing at the supranational level its relevance, particularly on the energy issue.
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