Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen are vying for the same scepter. And friendship knows no mercy. In general, the Italian has to swallow a few disappointments.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been having a hard time with her friends lately. There is the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old Italian teacher, has been in custody in Budapest for 13 months. She is accused of beating two participants to the hospital at the neo-Nazi “Day of Honor” demonstration last year. But since there is no real evidence, the images of Salis, who was paraded in the courtroom not only in handcuffs and ankle cuffs, but also on a chain, deeply disturbed the Italian public.
Even politicians in the Italian government criticized this approach. Although Meloni remained silent on the matter, she would undoubtedly have been happy if her friend Orbán had ensured behind the scenes that Salis would no longer be brought into the negotiations in this way. But that wasn’t the case, quite the opposite: the Hungarian Prime Minister made it known that any attempt by Italy to put pressure on the Hungarian government in this matter would be pointless, “because our court is independent.”
With von der Leyen it’s better not to be such a fat friend anymore
The friendship with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on whom Meloni had relied since she took office in October 2022 in order to make her voice heard in the EU, also appears to be developing differently than previously expected. Until a few weeks ago, Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election at the top of the EU was more or less a foregone conclusion. Now her chances are no longer so good. The so-called Pfizer deal is largely to blame for this, but not only. This is about the delivery of the vaccine during the pandemic. The European public prosecutor’s office is investigating suspicions of secret agreements between von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla.
It was almost certain that Meloni would support von der Leyen’s re-election, even if she never officially confirmed it. You could say she did it indirectly. To the question that the national-populist Lega leader Matteo Salvini repeatedly asked her – whether she would really be prepared to support the re-election of von der Leyen together with the Social Democrats – Meloni answered the question of who would lead the next EU Commission , will only be asked after the election in June. But she would probably prefer not to have been such close friends with von der Leyen anymore.
And then there is Marine Le Pen, former leader of the far-right National Front party, which now goes by the name Rassemblement National. She was also one of Meloni’s circle of friends. At least until recently. As recently as January, the Prime Minister had words of praise for Le Pen. That’s why the Frenchwoman’s attack a few weeks ago was all the more surprising. The friendship doesn’t just stop with money, but also with claims to power. And the two politicians pursue the same goal. If you wanted to draw it from the world of fairy tales, you could depict the competition between these two politicians with this well-known question: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is Europe’s right-wing queen?”
At Salvini’s party, Le Pen attacks Meloni head-on
At the moment the scepter probably goes to Meloni. She is the prime minister of one of the most important EU countries and the leader of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR) party in Europe, which could take third place in the next EU Parliament in the upcoming EU elections.
Instead, Le Pen is once again preparing for presidential elections in France. The next ones will take place in two years. In the EU Parliament, Rassemblement National is a member of the even more right-wing faction “Identity and Democracy” (ID), which also includes the AfD and Matteo Salvini’s Italian Lega, Meloni’s coalition partner in Italy. But the presence of the AfD in her group has recently made Le Pen uncomfortable. After the meeting of right-wing extremists in Potsdam became known in January, at which AfD politicians were also present, she publicly distanced herself from the German party. Like Meloni, Le Pen is also attempting a strategic balancing act between a radical and a conservative profile.
And so to Le Pen’s attack on Meloni. At the end of March, Salvini invited the representatives of the European right-wing radical parties to a second meeting in Rome – the first took place in Florence in December at Meloni’s invitation. Le Pen didn’t show up this time either, but sent another video message. In this, the politician turned directly to the Prime Minister and asked her directly whether she would support von der Leyen or not. “Today, Matteo Salvini is the only candidate on the right who, in my opinion, will stand against von der Leyen and his re-election.”
A few days later, Rassemblement National leader Jordan Bardella added that the ECR group was facing a split because many members were unwilling to support von der Leyen’s re-election and would therefore prefer to join the ID group. If that were the case, the ID could challenge the ECR for third place after the European elections.
The next few weeks will show whether Bardella’s announcement comes true. Meloni might have remembered some advice from her predecessor Mario Draghi these days. He once said at a press conference that it was very important to make the right friends in Europe.