A Meloni-Le Pen super group? Not so fast
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is keeping her
options open ahead of EU election.
MAY 28,
2024 4:00 AM CET
BY BARBARA
MOENS, EDDY WAX, SARAH PAILLOU AND HANNAH ROBERTS
BRUSSELS —
Sometimes, it’s the thrill of the chase.
Italian
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, courted by senior political suitors from the
European Commission president to Europe’s most prominent far-right leader, is
leaving her options open in the final moments of the EU election race.
Days before
the June 6 to 9 European election, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has
issued another offer to Meloni to form a right-wing super group in the European
Parliament. Le Pen’s National Rally currently sits with the Identity and
Democracy (ID) group of far-right parties, while Meloni’s Brothers of Italy
party sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
Some
analysts suggest this declaration from Le Pen is election-time posturing or a
threat to the center-right European People’s Party and European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen. A unified right-wing and far-right political
force is a less-than-ideal scenario for the EPP and its current socialist and
liberal coalition partners, who are currently in control of the European
Parliament.
Hard-right
unity could provide the right-wing and far-right groups leverage on two major
fronts. First, it could set the potential super group up to block a second
mandate for von der Leyen. Second, it could allow them to steer the direction
of critical EU policy from migration to climate and shift it rightward.
A member of
the ID group, who was granted anonymity, like others quoted in this piece, to
speak candidly, said it’s clear where Meloni’s interests lie.
“Between
the friendly and authentic affection from Le Pen and the one from the
Commission president who distributes billions of euros, who do you think is the
most relevant? If von der Leyen or her successor opens the door to a good
relationship with Meloni, where does the latter have more interest? If Meloni
has the choice, she will choose the most useful path for Italy. Now, Le Pen
offers a backup plan.”
For months,
von der Leyen and the EPP have not ruled out a coalition with Meloni’s ECR. The
two have inched closer, signaling a potential opportunity for collaboration in
a new Parliament as von der Leyen tilts towards the right-wing leader’s views
on migration while Meloni has brought her ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orbán, to the table to agree on EU aid to Ukraine.
Hermann
Tertsch, a Spanish member of the European Parliament with ECR, said that it’s
high time to join forces “against all this [European] People’s Party and
socialists doing an agenda which is quite awful for the European interests. I
think we need it really hard and strongly and urgently, that all the democratic
conservative forces unite and put the EPP in front of their own deeds.”
Tertsch
added the solution might not be a single group but that clearly “things are
moving.”
In 2019,
von der Leyen only narrowly got the sign-off from European lawmakers. This time
around, she has continuously courted Meloni, including showing up in Lampedusa
as the Italian leader produced a tough stance on migration in 2023. One year
before, when Meloni rose to the Italian top job in 2022, she was seen by
European leaders as a far-right politician who mainstream conservatives wanted
to keep at arm’s length. Now, she is portrayed as a more mainstream
conservative, in part due to her relationship with von der Leyen.
Le Pen,
with her comments this weekend, might have provided Meloni with another
strategic option in the European Parliament if hard right parties do as well as
polls have suggested in recent months.
Still,
there are no wedding bells pending just yet for Le Pen and Meloni.
For now,
Meloni has left all options on the table among parties on the right.
Speaking on
Italian Rai Radio1 on Monday, Meloni said that her political group could play a
crucial role in the next European Parliament, as could Italy. She said: “We
should be happy. I don’t remember Italy being particularly central in the past.
We conservatives are the only ones that can create a change in step.”
But
cooperation with the EPP, which is expected to remain the biggest group in the
European Parliament, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, might be more
useful for Meloni.
One ECR
insider said: “Meloni will not easily team up with Le Pen and cut herself off
power and influence.”
Le Pen’s
offer should be viewed in the context of the French campaign ahead of the
European Parliament election, said one ECR insider, as she attempts to be seen
as more of a mainstream conservative herself.
Her party
has spent years distancing itself from its far-right past to try to appeal to
mainstream voters. Her party’s criticism of the extreme-right Alternative for
Germany (AfD) following a series of scandals last week led to the ID group
expelling AfD. The distance that Le Pen publicly took from the AfD was widely
seen as an attempt to normalize her party ahead of the French presidential
election in 2027.
According
to another member of the European Parliament from ECR, Le Pen’s comments were
intended to create a “smokescreen” to conceal the difficulties experienced by
the National Rally in securing its future in the European Parliament since its
break with the AfD.
Kicking AfD
out of ID could leave the far-right even more fragmented and the National Rally
in an even more vulnerable position in which they might lose some of their
current group to an even more far-right grouping if AfD creates their own in
the next Parliament.
“NR faces
the risk of going back to their 2014 situation, when they had the biggest
French delegation but no group,” said another member of ECR.
On Monday,
the National Rally went to great pains to play down the importance of Le Pen’s
remarks, insisting they had been taken out of context.
Thibaut
François, a French MEP for the National Rally and advisor to Le Pen on European
affairs, said: “There never was an idea of a super group.”
Le Pen
simply wanted to “reinforce ID,” her group in Parliament, and create unity “in
terms of [votes] to create a blocking minority,” François said.
Barbara
Moens and Eddy Wax reported from Brussels. Sarah Paillou reported from Paris. Hannah Robers reported from Rome.
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