Meloni blasts agreement on EU top jobs

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 26 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday blasted the agreement reportedly made by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the socialists and liberal groups for the EU top jobs as she reported to the Lower House before this week's EU summit.
    Under the reported deal, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of the EPP will keep her position, while former Portuguese socialist prime minister Antonio Costa will take over as European Council president and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, a liberal, will become the new EU high representative for foreign affairs.
    "The mistake that is about to be made, with the imposition of the logic of a fragile majority that is probably destined to have difficulties during the (European) parliamentary term, is an major mistake, not for the centre-right or for Italy, but for a Europe that does not seem to understand the challenge it faces, or, if it does understand, it but prefers, in any case, to prioritize other things," said Meloni, the chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party belongs to.
    "If we want to do good service to Europe and its credibility, we must show that we have understood the errors of the past and have the utmost consideration for the directions of the citizens, who are asking for a more concrete, less ideological Europe".
    The deal was reportedly reached in a video conference of six national leaders representing the three groups - Poland's Donald Tusk and Greece's Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the EPP, Germany's Olaf Scholz and Spain's Pedro Sanchez for the socialists and France's Emmanuel Macron and the Netherlands' Mark Rutte for the liberals.
    Meloni blasted such 'fireplace' agreements made among a small group of leaders, especially given how the parties of those figures did in the European elections.
    "If there is one indisputable thing that comes from the ballot box, it is the rejection of the policies pursued by the political parties in government in many of the large European nations, which, in many cases, are also the parties that have dictated the European policies of recent years.
    "The governing parties got 16% in France, 32% in Germany, 34% in Spain.
    "Only in Italy are 53% of those elected representatives of government parties". (ANSA).