Deputy Premier and Transport Minister
Matteo Salvini's League party hit back hard on Saturday at
fellow Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who
said the right-wing group risked being "irrelevant" in Europe
after voting against European Commission Ursula von der Leyen's
re-election this week.
Tajani was commenting on the fact that the right-wing Patriots
for Europe group that the League belongs to at the EU level did
not have any of its members elected as vice-presidents of the
European Parliament.
Tajani's Forza Italia (FI) is part of von der Leyen's
centre-right European People's Party (EPP).
The Commission president's re-election was also backed by the
Socialist S&D group, which Italy's centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) belongs to, the liberal Renew Europe group and the Greens,
but not by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's Conservative ECR
group.
"Voting with Schlein in order to get a position is
embarrassing," League sources said referring to PD leader Elly
Schlein.
"It's better to not have any vice-presidents than to be with the
Greens and the Left".
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