Le Pen to Meloni: Let’s team up and form EU
Parliament’s No. 2 group
The far right is projected to perform well in next
week’s EU election, but is politically fragmented.
MAY 26,
2024 9:30 PM CET
BY HANNAH
ROBERTS
On the eve
of next week’s EU election, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is inviting
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to team up and form a right-wing
super-grouping that would be the second-biggest party bloc in the European
Parliament.
The far
right is projected to perform well in the June 6-9 election but there are still
intense doubts about which parties would be able to work together as
cross-border political groups — because many of the national parties are
sharply divided — especially over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Le Pen’s
pitch to Meloni is simple, and could well prove significant. Speaking to
Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday, she said: “This is the moment
to unite, it would be truly useful. If we manage, we will become the second
group of the European Parliament. I think that we should not let an opportunity
like this pass us by.”
Meloni, who
is also being courted by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to
join forces with center-right European People’s Party, responded she was open
to cooperation with any parties on the right.
Le Pen’s
National Rally party currently sits with Identity and Democracy (ID) group,
while Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party sits with the European Conservatives and
Reformists (ECR).
Le Pen’s
appeal comes just days after the ID group expelled the extreme-right
Alternative for Germany (AfD) following a series of scandals that made the
party a pariah. The group also includes the anti-immigrant League, a party
which is in coalition with Meloni in the Italian government.
The
far-right parties are currently divided into four rough groupings and one of
the biggest questions surrounding the election is how they might configure in
the aftermath. If they all worked together — which still seems unlikely — they
could be the No. 2 force in Parliament.
The latest
projections suggest 68 seats for ID and 71 for ECR, making 139 lawmakers in the
720-seat chamber. AfD is on course for 17 seats and the unaffiliated Hungarian
Fidesz party currently has 12 MEPs. All together, something over 165 seats
would seem to be in play for the (currently disunited) far right.
POLITICO’s
Poll of Polls puts the EPP group on track to win 174 seats with the Socialists
and Democrats heading toward 144 seats.
Poland’s
former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki from the conservative PiS party in the
ECR has also left the door open to a big tie-up on the right, and there is wide
speculation that Hungary’s Viktor Orbán will affiliate his Fidesz party there
after the election.
All of
these mergers and reconfigurations are complex and vulnerable to post-election
deals and disagreements. The Czechs and Romanians in the ECR don’t want to team
up with nationalist Hungarians sympathetic to the Kremlin, for example. Major
political gymnastics and resets would be required to get the AfD back in the
tent.
While
losing the AfD has dented ID’s numbers, it has opened doors for Le Pen. The AfD
and Le Pen’s National Rally party have long been considered as too extreme for
cooperation — outside a so-called cordon sanitaire created by the pro-Europe
mainstream.
Cooperation
with Meloni could, therefore, be a double win for Le Pen. They could build a
hefty voting bloc from which to influence Europe’s agenda and bring National
Rally more into the mainstream right in the eyes of the public, something Le
Pen craves before France’s 2027 election.
In the
interview, Le Pen denied severing ties with the AfD was a cynical move intended
to facilitate new alliances in Europe.
On Meloni,
she said: “I believe that she and I are in agreement on the essential issues,
including taking back control of our countries.”
Later on
Sunday, Meloni did not rule out accepting Le Pen’s offer.
In an
interview on Rai TV Meloni said that she did not have any red lines when it
came to potential alliances other political forces in the new European
assembly, having been categorized as “unpresentable” herself, “for a lifetime”.
She said:
“My main objective is to build an alternative majority to the one that has
governed in recent years. A centre-right majority — in other words — which will
send the left into opposition in Europe.”
Meloni said
she was not willing to be part of a majority with the left.
“For
everything else, we’ll see.”
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