Meloni chooses to continue with the far right on the other side of the cordon sanitaire

The three parties in the Italian government presented themselves in Strasbourg on Thursday with a different position in the vote to re-elect Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President. Forza Italia was in favour. The League was against. And the most important of the three, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, was dependent. Her European group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), was the only one that did not clarify its voting intention beforehand. Only once the result was known did they announce that they had voted “no”, although by then this was already irrelevant, since the new president had enough votes with the support of the Greens. This support, precisely, was the argument that Meloni’s party used to explain its vote against, since it abhors the Commission’s Green Plan, which for them is a red line. “It has made our vote impossible,” explained its delegation, which immediately clarified: “On the other hand, we want to have an extremely constructive relationship” and in the legislature “the game will be played on the content.” In other words, Meloni prefers to remain on the other side of the cordon sanitaire, with the European populist far right. But with a special safe-conduct pass, with the right to cross it to enter and leave from time to time, and to continue working on respectability and his exceptional status on that side.

The Italian prime minister has found herself in a difficult situation these weeks, caught between her desire to be accepted into the EU as just another party, with access to power-sharing agreements, which meant supporting the renewal of the Commission president as a sign of goodwill, and on the other hand, continuing to keep the other foot among her far-right partners, so as not to be considered a traitor. The entire group of Patriots for Europe, the third in the Chamber, which includes the Hungarian Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen and Vox, speaks of Von der Leyen as the devil himself. For Meloni, aligning himself with her was a long journey after celebrating the rise of the far right in the European elections on June 9, proclaiming that it should be taken into account and staging that, not only does it have no influence, but that it itself supports traditional politics.

“We have been consistent, we do not share the method or the merit of the election, but the collaboration with the Commission will continue, for example on immigration.” Meloni is hurt that Italy is in a marginal position, despite being the third most populous country in the EU, but she will keep an open channel. She will continue to do what Von der Leyen said she appreciated about her before the elections, being able to work on specific issues, when she still did not know if she would need her support: “I work well with Meloni, she is a Europeanist.” In fact, after the re-election, the Italian leader wished her on Thursday “the best in her work.” In practice, the attempts of the Prime Minister of Rome to get something clear in Brussels have not been successful. All that remains for her is to fight for a heavyweight commissioner, although Italy in general usually already has a relevant one as it is the third country in the EU. She wants at least an executive vice-presidency, but that also seems very uphill.

Attacks in Italy by its own government partner

In this path between two waters that Meloni has followed these years looking for her own line, nobody has made it easy for her, on either side, when the moment of truth has arrived. Before the European elections, faced with the uncertainty of the results, the European People’s Party (EPP) toyed with the idea of ​​opening up to pacts with the far right, but once they had sufficient numbers, the cordon has been extended again to block her path. “I will not allow extremists to destroy the EU,” proclaimed Von der Leyen in her speech, who in turn had received vetoes against Meloni from her allies, social democrats and liberals. They conditioned their support on leaving her out, just like the Greens. At the same time, the head of the Italian government has had to endure day in and day out the attacks of her partner, Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, who in search of prominence has taken advantage to show himself as the most extreme of the Executive and forced her to take a position. Even more so when Orbán formed the new group Patriots for Europe, which brought together almost all the major far-right parties, and emptied his own, leaving it even more isolated.

For Meloni, supporting Von der Leyen was almost like changing sides. He was gaining time because he still hoped to obtain something to sell to his electorate as an achievement that would have made the operation worthwhile. He calculated that his 24 deputies could be valuable to Von der Leyen in the event of desertions in the secret vote. But in the end the president did not need them, although the Italian press suggests that under the same protection of the secret vote she may have agreed to guarantee her some support. Meloni’s party denied this bluntly: “We are serious people, we make agreements in the light of the Sun.”

The truth is that in the days leading up to the election there were signs that something was moving, the cordon sanitaire was temporarily lifted. On Tuesday, Brothers of Italy considered it an almost historic victory to have obtained a vice-presidency of the European Parliament, one of the two assigned to ECR. It issued an enthusiastic note: “For the first time a representative of the Italian right has been elected vice-president” (in fact it is the second time, there was already one from Berlusconi’s party). “This is an important recognition of the political action carried out by Brothers of Italy in the European sphere (…) A prestigious position that will allow our party and Italy to better represent the interests of Italy in Europe.” This is the key they are playing to make it seem that their concessions and decisions are rewarded and that they will thus be able to have a say in immigration, borders or agriculture. The new vice-president is Antonella Sberna, 42 years old, who considered her election to be proof that they are “a right-wing government, realistic, serious and credible.”

But at the same time Meloni still has to take care of his relations with the other front, the far-right camp on the other side of the cordon sanitaire. Already in the first resolution voted in the European Parliament, in support of Ukraine, Brothers of Italy voted against the amendment condemning Orbán’s trip to Moscow. And so it will continue, entering and leaving through the cordon, ignoring its existence.

Follow all the international information atFacebook andXor inour weekly newsletter.