Italian Left hails EU Nature Restoration Law vote

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 12 - Left-wing Italian parties expressed delight on Wednesday after an attempt by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and other right-wing groups to sink the Nature Restoration Law in the European Parliament failed.
    The proposal to rehabilitate at least 20% of Europe's degraded ecosystems by 2030, an important part of the the Green Deal, survived the vote in Strasbourg with 336 votes in favour, 300 against and 13 abstentions.
    "It's a great joy to be able to celebrate the vote in Strasbourg on the Nature Restoration Law," said Annalisa Corrado, the head of the Ecological Conversion for the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
    "The right-wing parties have identified the European Green Deal as an enemy. Nothing could be more mistaken.
    "The ecosystem is our home.
    "Continuing to say that preserving it is too costly from an economic point of view, as our Premier (Giorgia Meloni) does, is dishonest and reveals a short-sighted form of conservatism".
    The 5-Star Movement's lawmakers in parliament's EU policies and environment committees accused the parties of Meloni's coalition of being united only when it comes to rowing against moves to combat the environmental crisis.
    "Today the government coalition, which is divided over everything in Italy, regained unity in the worst possible way, trying to sink the nature restoration law that obliged member States to protect biodiversity and the environment with concrete, measurable measures," the M5S lawmakers said.
    "Today everyone knows that the Italian right-wing parties of Meloni, (Matteo) Salvini and (Antonio) Tajani are on the side of the industrial agriculture lobby in the name of profit".
    French MEP Manon Aubry, the co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament, said that Wednesday's vote marked the defeat of an attempt to transfer the right/centre-right alliance backing Meloni's government to the EU level.
    "We are relieved," Aubry told ANSA.
    "It a great defeat for the coalition between the People's Party and the Right, a coalition that you know well in Italy with the Meloni government.
    "They tried it in Italy and now they wanted to try in the European Parliament, but we defeated them.
    "It is proof that, together, the parties of the Left can save the environmental agenda and defeat the right".
    Right-wing groups have said the law would threaten the livelihoods of European farmers and fishers, disrupt food supply chains and lead to price hikes.
    Italian MEP Carlo Fidanza, the head of Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in the European Parliament, said the failure to sink the Nature Restoration Law did not spell the end for the prospect of a "new alliance" at the EU level.
    "On the contrary, what has emerged is the awareness that some of the decisions made by the current executive were wrong," he continued.
    "It's a good signal for the future and for the next parliamentary term".
    Another FdI MEP, Nicola Procaccini, said the Nature Restoration Law was "negative for everyone who works in the world of agriculture, fishing and the related sectors". (ANSA).