Giorgia Meloni has won the European elections in Italy, according to exit polls. These are the only data available on Sunday night, given that it was the last country to close schools, at eleven at night. Brothers of Italy, the prime minister’s party, would have obtained between 26% and 31% of the votes, a result equal to or better than that of the 2022 general elections (26%). Meloni was kept waiting on election night as the last great guest to arrive at the far-right party, when the polls had already been talking for three hours about the rise of her fellow members. An involuntary scenic touch, but in line with the aura that she has acquired these weeks, as a separate character in the European extreme right.
Pending final results, the polls indicate that it is confirmed that the leader of the Brothers of Italy will take a good number of seats to the European Parliament that will make her an important player in the game of majorities that opens from now on. Mainly, because five years ago her presence was irrelevant. It is time to see how far that phrase from the president of the European Commission, the Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen, really goes, when she said that she had worked very well with Meloni. That is, how do you plan to continue working with her. The choice of that verb, work, was careful, because it is purely practical, as if she intended to discard any ideological nuance, and now we will have to see what it translates into. Her main merit, Von der Leyen said, is that she is pro-European. Translated, she supports Ukraine against Russia, unlike many of her sister formations.
Meloni has played astutely these two years, since she won the general elections in her country in September 2022, with a more pro-European profile than expected and which, surprisingly, has even ended up making her seem like a potential partner of the conservatives, in case of need, if the case arises. Alarm bells have gone off among Von der Leyen’s other partners, socialists and liberals. But, depending on the numbers and final balance in the European Parliament, Meloni entertains the idea of becoming a kind of bridge with the extreme right, a more presentable interlocutor for people who wanted to be kept away, an advance party for a troop that until now was untouchable. . Perhaps with specific support, in order to try to set the community agenda on key issues, such as climate change and immigration. In return, he can assert his ability to influence tougher leaders, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. But, on the other hand, the rise of Marine Le Pen in these elections will increase the pressure on her to accept the idea of unifying the two large far-right formations of the European Parliament: European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), where Brothers of Italy shares seats with Vox, and Identity and Democracy (ID), which has Le Pen’s National Regrouping.
National key
But, in any case, in Italy the elections have been planned, as in Spain, almost exclusively internally. In this sense, Meloni’s victory maintains and reinforces his leadership in the first far-right government in the history of this country after World War II. This objective has been achieved, within the direct struggle with the first opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD), which had approached the elections as a plebiscite (and Meloni herself, since she headed the lists personally, although she will later renounce her seat). However, the first polls give a good result for the PD and its candidate, Elly Schlein, in their first electoral test, between 21% and 25%. It was a true leadership test to begin to overcome the depression of the poor results of the general elections two years ago, 19%. Schlein has well integrated the main internal currents and has campaigned intensely. The recovery of her party is good news for the European socialist family, in need of joy.
Meloni’s second objective was longer term: to consolidate power in his political field, where he aspires to occupy all the space, from the extreme right, where he has been traveling for years, to the center of lifelong conservatives, widely orphaned after the decline and death of Berlusconi. It is one step closer to his project of a major institutional reform to give more power to the prime minister, subject to a referendum.
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Its two partners, but rivals in the same perimeter, Forza Italia and the League, have been, according to the first polls, relegated to percentages around 10% or even below, that is, they would remain stagnant in their results. This, however, can be a source of problems, since it is confirmed that the League, which precisely won the last European Championships with an overwhelming 34%, is in free fall and the leadership of its leader, Matteo Salvini, is in danger, who may be tempted to leave. create a government crisis. Meloni, who in the 2019 European elections was the minority force on the right, with 6.4% of the votes, has completely turned the political drawing around in these five years.
Meloni had been worried in recent days because the polls indicated that he was losing strength, and he wanted to influence the campaign with more aggressiveness and more populist nods, including a trip to Albania to announce that he will open this summer the two immigrant reception camps that he is in. building there to take immigrants arriving by sea. In his harsh tone he was in open competition with the League, which with its head of the list, the controversial General Roberto Vanacci, has made strenuous efforts to demonstrate that no one can surpass him by saying atrocities against foreigners and homosexuals. But he has won the game again.
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