Tajani demurs at Salvini 'coup' claim

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 28 - Foreign Minister and centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party leader Antonio Tajani on Friday demurred when asked about fellow Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini's claim that the deal among pro-European EP groups to re-elect Ursula von der Leyen as EC chief, Antonio Costa as Council chair and Kaja Kallas as foreign chief had been a "coup d'état" that flew in the face of the European voters who gave the Right big gains in the recent elections.
    Commenting at the Farnesina on Salvini's words that the agreement in Brussels "reeks of a coup d'état", Tajani, whose FI is part of von der Leyen's European People's Party(EPP), said "it is not my language".
    Tajani added that Salvini's 'stitch-up' claim "does not affect the weight of Italy, which is a founding country of Europe".
    He went on: "The negotiation is done by the premier on behalf of Italy, not on behalf of the (domestic) majority political forces (Meloni's Brothers of Italy, Fi and the League)..
    "These words at the European level have absolutely no influence.
    They are political judgements." (ANSA).