Meloni wins in Italy and wants to be the voice of the far right in the EU | European elections 2024 | News

Giorgio Meloni has won the European elections in Italy. The prime minister’s party, Brothers of Italy, has 28.8% of the vote, an improvement compared to the 2022 general elections (where it reached 26%) and within the predictions made by the polls. Meloni was kept waiting on election night as the last great guest to arrive at the far-right party, when the electorate had already been talking for three hours about the rise of her fellow members. An uncharacteristic natural touch, but in line with the aura she has acquired in these weeks as a distinct character in the European extreme right.

With a low participation that has not reached 50%, the leader of the Brothers of Italy will take a good number of seats in the European Parliament that will make him an important player in the majority game that will open from now on. Mainly, because five years ago its presence was irrelevant. It is time to see how far that phrase of the President of the European Commission, Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen, really goes when she said that she worked very well with Meloni. That is, what do you plan to continue working with him. That action, the choice of action, was carefully made, because it is purely pragmatic, as if it were intended to rule out any ideological nuances, and now we have to see what it translates into. His main qualification is that he is pro-European, said von der Leyen. Translated, it is that he supports Ukraine against Russia, unlike many of his allied structures.

Meloni has played the game very cleverly these two years since winning the general election in his country in September 2022, with a much more pro-European profile than expected and which, surprisingly, has made him look like a potential partner of the conservatives, should the need arise. Alarm bells have rung among von der Leyen’s other allies, the socialists and the liberals. But, depending on the numbers and the final balance in the European Parliament, Meloni has the idea of ​​becoming a kind of bridge with the extreme right, a more presentable interlocutor for those who wanted to stay away, an advance party for a military that was untouchable until now. Perhaps with specific support, to try to set the community agenda on key issues such as climate change and immigration. In return, he can boast of his ability to influence more hardline 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 ​​uniting the two large far-right formations in the European Parliament: the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), where Brothers of Italy shares seats with Vox, and Identity and Democracy (ID), with Le Pen’s National Regrouping.

National Key

But, in any case, the elections in Italy are planned, as in Spain, almost exclusively internally. In this sense, Meloni’s victory maintains and strengthens his leadership in the first far-right government in the history of this country after World War II. This objective has been achieved under direct conflict with the first opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD), which saw the elections as a referendum (and also with Meloni herself, since she personally topped the list, although she will later give up her seat). However, the first polls give a good result for the PD, around 23%, and its candidate, Ellie Schlein, who won the primaries last year and faces his first electoral test. It was a true leadership test to recover from the depression of the poor result of the 19% of the general elections two years ago. Schlein has integrated the main internal currents well and has campaigned intensively. The recovery of his party is good news for the European socialist family, which needs to be cheered. As for the Five Star Movement, it has impressed greatly with 10% of the vote, far more than the 15% it won in the last general election. On the other hand, the coalition of the Greens and the Left is a surprise, coming in at 6%. This also means that its candidate, 39-year-old teacher Ilaria Salis, who was detained in Hungary for more than a year accused of attacking neo-Nazi terrorists in Budapest, is exempted as a deputy. This is a very high-profile case that has made her an icon on the left. With this result, Hungary will have to release her.

Meloni’s second objective was longer-term: to consolidate power in his political constituency, where he aspires to occupy all positions from the extreme right, where he has been touring for years, to the centre of lifelong conservatives who have been widely orphaned after the fall and death of Berlusconi. It is also a step closer to his project of a major institutional reform to give more power to the prime minister, subject to a referendum.

Its two partners, but rivals in the same perimeter, Forza Italia and the League, have decreased, according to the first surveys, to percentages similar to those of two years ago, with a relevant nuance: what was Berlusconi’s party would reach 10%, a sign that it is still resisting despite the loss of its leader, and even above Matteo Salvini’s party, with around 8%, a poor result. However, this could be a source of problems, since it is confirmed that the League, which won the last European Championship by a huge margin of 34%, is in a state of free fall and that the leadership of its leader, Matteo Salvini, is in danger. Which could be tempted to create a government crisis. Meloni, who was a minority force on the right with 6.4% of the votes in the 2019 European elections, has completely changed the political drawing in these five years.

Meloni had been worried in recent days as polls indicated he was losing strength, and he wanted to infuse the campaign with more aggression and more populist gestures, including a trip to Albania to announce that he would open two immigrant reception camps this summer that he is building there to take in immigrants arriving by sea. In his tough tone he was in open competition with the League, which, with its leader, the controversial General Roberto Vanacci, has worked hard to demonstrate that no one can outdo them by calling for atrocities against foreigners and gays. But he has won the game again.

,