The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has opened the door this Thursday to agree in Europe with the ultra Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy and who last weekend participated in the Vox event in which Javier Milei insulted Pedro Sánchez and his wife. “It does not seem comparable to other parties that are considered extreme right in Europe,” he said during a colloquium organized by the Cercle d’Economia in Barcelona, where the PP will open the campaign for the elections on June 9.
Feijóo has acknowledged when asked by the president of the business organization, Jaume Guardiola, that the European PP is going through “difficulties” in France, where Emmanuel Macron dominates, and in Italy, where Brothers of Italy leads the polls. “In Italy I would be very attentive to Meloni’s approach,” he added below. “I don’t have enough information, but it doesn’t seem comparable to other parties that are considered extreme right in Europe,” he said.
The leader of the PP recalled that the European PP approved at its congress in Bucharest (Romania) that its “approach is not an alliance with the extreme right as we have known it in the previous European legislature.” And immediately he added: “Yes, we have seen that Mrs. Meloni, for example, voted in favor of the immigration pact. Her colleagues from other countries voted against it.”
Feijóo’s statements come the same day that the European PP candidate for a second term as President of the Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, has reached out to Meloni to “work together” during a debate between the headliners of the main political families.
In a recent interview in El País, Sánchez said that he would not support Von der Leyen to preside over the Commission if he agreed with the extreme right. “I have an extraordinary relationship and [la] “I recognize her as a woman who has done a lot for Europe during her mandate,” she said, adding: “She will not have the support of the Spanish socialist delegation if she proposes an agreement with the European extreme right.”
The extreme right is divided into two groups in Europe, one has the presence of Meloni’s party and Vox, and the other includes, among others, Marine Le Pen (National Regroupment), Matteo Salvini (League) and Alternative for Germany (AfD). But the German ultras have been expelled after one of their candidates made statements about the SS.
Feijóo also assured this Thursday that “the most extreme right or extreme right, whatever you want to call it, is an opportunity for the left”, despite the fact that the PP governs with Vox in dozens of autonomous communities and city councils. “The left is interested in having an extreme right from an electoral point of view, because the more extreme it is, the more the left becomes focused,” he added.
No to ‘green’ taxes
Feijóo has also stated that one of his priorities in the next legislature in Europe will be to demand that the Commission “not impose taxes.” The leader of the PP has cited two in particular, related to the fight against pollution: that of single-use plastics and that of CO2 emissions.
The leader of the PP has considered that Von der Leyen, with whom he has maintained important disagreements since assuming the presidency of the party, has “improvised” on fiscal matters during this legislature that is now ending.
Feijóo has asked to “build a Europe that realizes” that it “only” represents “5% of the world’s population.” “And proportional responsibility corresponds to 5%,” he added. The leader of the PP has thus claimed that one cannot “think that the European Union is the center of the world because it is no longer, and with each passing decade the center is moving and we Europeans are staying on the periphery.” “But not in a competitive periphery,” he pointed out, “but in an aging periphery, absolutely regulated, with an ever-increasing bureaucracy and a frankly worrying lack of ambition for competitiveness and projects.
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