Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister
Antonio Tajani said Tuesday that it will not be possible for his
centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party to be
allies at the EU level with fellow Deputy Premier Matteo
Salvini's League while the latter remains in the Identity and
Democracy (ID) group, even though they are coalition partners in
Italy.
FI is a member of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP)
of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is
bidding for a second term at the helm of the EU executive.
ID includes Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN).Geert Wilders'
Dutch Freedom Party and the Austrian Freedom Party.
ID members recently expelled the far-right Alternative for
Germany (AfD) party after the AfD's EC presidential candidate
said that not all the SS were criminals.
"As long as the League is with ID, nobody will make agreements
with them," Tajani said ahead of next month's European elections
"In the EPP they don't want to form a government with
anti-European forces.
"The League is different, but it is in that family.
"'The only alternative coalition to the one with the Socialists
(and the EPP) is one with the EPP, the Conservatives and the
Liberals.
"If the League leaves (ID), it could become part of the ruling
majority. We would be in favour".
The Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, led by Premier
Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, includes Spain's Vox,
France's Reconquest, Poland's Law and Justice and the Sweden
Democrats, while Hungarian strongman and Meloni's friend Viktor
Orban is expected to join having left the EPP under a cloud.
Von der Leyen has said she can work with Meloni, whom she
described as pro-European and anti-Putin, but said working with
other ECR members would be harder.
Tajani, on the other hand, is openly calling for the ECR to
replace the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) as the EPP's main
allies along with the LIberals.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
