Von der Leyen reached a deal with Meloni to continue presiding over the European Commission

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said this Thursday that she considers the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to be “pro-European”, and confirmed her intention to work with her if she remains on the side of Ukraine and in favor of the rule of law in the next legislature.

“I am working very well with Giorgia Meloni, that is my job as Commission president. We will make a proposal, we will see if she is pro-European, which she clearly is; anti-Putin, which she has been very clear on that; and in favour of the rule of law, if that is maintained, then I will offer to work together,” von der Leyen said in a debate with the rest of the European election candidates.

“We will make a proposal, to see if it is pro-European”

Regarding the possibility that parties that have been part of her coalition so far, such as the Social Democrats and the Liberals, would refuse to work with her if she sought support from the extreme right, von der Leyen explained that groups in the European Parliament would not vote as a bloc and that she would make a specific offer to those MEPs who want to “move Europe forward and make it stronger”.

“I’m talking about MEPs, we’ll see which group they fall into and then we’ll work with those who are clearly pro-European, pro-Ukrainian and pro-rule of law,” von der Leyen said.

When asked about the Italian government’s restrictive policies toward the LGTBIQ+ community, the German limited himself to saying that his approach is “completely different.”

Debate between candidates

Already during a debate with the rest of the candidates, Social Democrat Nicolas Schmidt had urged her to clarify what being pro-European meant for her, to which von der Leyen replied that she would not cooperate with parties such as the French National Rally, which “may have different names but they have in common that they want to destroy the EU”.

Earlier, Schmidt called two ultra-conservative and far-right groups in the European Parliament “non-democratic” because they had a “very different” vision of what Europe should be like and because they were dedicated to creating disinformation and what he said were attacks on women’s rights and press freedom. “On some issues, we need clarity, not ambiguity,” he said.

The liberal candidate, Sandro Gozi, also criticised von der Leyen for working with parties from the ultra-conservative group and directly mentioned Italy’s Meloni brothers, but also Vox, whom he accused of wanting to “destroy Europe from the inside”.