League spars with Meloni over EU allies

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 25 - Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League party on Monday sparred with Premier Giorgia Meloni over European allies ahead of June's EU elections, calling on her to come out in favour of a broad alliance that encompasses parties on the far right of the political spectrum.
    Salvini has been calling for a centre-right/right alliance like the one that rules in Italy to be replicated at the European level to prevent European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen being re-elected via another grand coalition of the European People's Party (EPP), the Liberals and the European Socialists (PES).
    This broad alliance would include the Identity and Democracy (ID) group that the League belongs to and which also includes the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and Marine Le Pen's National Rally.
    Foreign Minister and fellow Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani, the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party that belongs to the EPP, has rejected the idea.
    "For months the League has been calling for a united centre-right, in Europe as in Italy," the League said in a statement on Monday.
    "Unfortunately, so far there have only been vetoes on Le Pen and on the League's allies.
    "We hope that no one in the coalition leading the country would rather govern the EU with (French President Emmanuel) Macron and the Socialists than with the League and its allies".
    Earlier on Monday Meloni called on the parties of the ruling coalition to stress what brings them together, rather than their differences, in the campaign for the European elections.
    "Everyone knows that my strategy is to make the centre-right the ruling majority in Europe as well," she said in Potenza.
    "In my opinion it is a mistake to split or try to split and base the election campaign on divisions within the centre-right, because this is the only favour one can do the Left".
    Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party belongs to the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group also featuring Poland's Law and Justice party, Spain's Vox, the Sweden Democrats, the Finns Party and France's Reconquest.
    Other members of the League's ID caucus are Austria's Freedom Party, the Danish People's Party, and Flemish Interest of Belgium. (ANSA).