the radical right surpasses the liberals in the EU and Rome asks for more power

In the distribution of senior EU positions, the leading voice was taken by the negotiators of the three large political families that make up the ‘grand coalition’. Donald Tusk and Kyriakos Mitsotakis They spoke on behalf of the European People’s Party, Olaf Scholz and Pedro Sanchez represent the socialists and Emmanuel Macron and Mark Rutte They are the liberal spokespersons.

The six held a restricted meeting beforehand while the rest of the heads of state and government, including Meloni, waited in the large room of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels. “If you want to count, you must decide who you are with”was the message from Macron and Scholz to the Italian prime minister. Meloni is a member of the radical right group of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), where Vox or the Poles from Law and Justice are also located. One of his few meetings was with fellow ultra Viktor Orbán.

[Los 27 fracasan en su primer intento de elegir a los nuevos altos cargos: el PPE pide más poder]

In the end, the grand coalition negotiators failed in their attempt to agree on the new leadership of the EU for the period 2024-2029. The EPP demands more power hiding behind its clear victory in the 9-J elections, but the socialists refuse.

The final decision has been postponed to the summit on June 27 and 28. The favorites pool has not changed: Ursula von der Leyen she will repeat as president of the Commission; the former portuguese prime minister, Antonio Costa, will be the new head of the European Council; while the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallaswill replace Josep Borrell as head of European diplomacy.

A distribution that does not please Meloni at all, who now demands more power for Italy and also for his in-laws. “We want to obtain a vice presidency of the European Commissiona strong commissioner and a good European policy in favor of industry and agriculture,” the Italian Foreign Minister said this Saturday, Antonio Tajani.

“There was a problem with the summit choreography. The meeting of the grand coalition negotiators lasted longer than expected and caused the unpleasant situation that for an hour and a half some leaders were in the room and others were not, which created a strange impression,” says a European diplomat.

“It is clear that The Italian Prime Minister is important and must be part of the agreement. But she is not speaking on behalf of her in-laws, because the Poles at Law and Justice have already made it clear that they will not support Von der Leyen. She is the leader of Brothers of Italy and the Italian Prime Minister. It’s a situation that not everyone has understood correctly and that has led to negative feelings,” she explains.

Meloni has seen its position reinforced during the past week because the European Conservatives and Reformists They have surpassed the liberals of Renew, the group sponsored by Macron, in the number of seats in the European Parliament. They thus position themselves as the third political family in Parliament, only surpassed by the EPP and the socialists.

According to the latest count, ECR now has 83 members after adding Marion Marechal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, and three other dissidents from the French Reconquista party; 5 deputies from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians; as well as a representative from Denmark, another from Bulgaria and another from Lithuania.

In contrast, the Renew Liberals have fallen by as much as 74 seats. The biggest blow has been the departure of the 7 MEPs from the ANO party, led by former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis. “We went to the European elections saying that we would fight against illegal immigration, that we wanted to repeal the ban on combustion engines and fundamentally change the Green Deal. Above all, we want the Czech Republic to remain a sovereign country. The negotiations so far have shown that this will not be possible in Renew, so we have decided to abandon it,” argues Babis.

“Ano’s departure from Renew is a divorce that should have been done a long time ago. Ano has chosen a populist path that is incompatible with our values ​​and our identity,” responded the leader of the group and head of Macron’s list for the European elections. , Válerie Hayer.

The second setback for the liberals has been the refusal of the pan-European party Volt to add its five MEPs to its ranks: They will go to the Green group. “What really makes the difference for us is that the Greens are more credible when it comes to fighting right-wing populists,” they claim in Volt.

And Hayer had threatened to expel Mark Rutte’s VVD from its ranks for having agreed to enter the Dutch coalition government led by the ultra Geert Wilders party. A threat that in the end has come to nothing. Instead, Renew will send an observer mission to the Netherlands to check if the party is crossing any red lines. in terms of liberal principles and values.

Faced with Meloni’s resounding victory in Italy and the rise of his political family, Macron has been weakened in both Paris and Brussels for his defeat at the hands of Marine Le Pen and his decision to call legislative elections, for which the polls relegate his party to third position.

In any case, The ‘grand coalition’ still has 399 seats of the 720 in the European Parliament. That is, Ursula von der Leyen could in principle reach the absolute majority of 361 deputies that she needs to be ratified (although very fairly once the defections are taken into account).

Meloni now faces the dilemma of joining the grand coalition (and provide 24 extra seats) or definitively opting to form a large far-right group, which would in principle mean voting against the German and leaving its confirmation in the European Parliament hanging in the balance.

However the eternal goal of creating this right-wing supergroup radical it seems this legislature will not be reached either. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has already announced that he will not integrate the 10 Fidesz deputies into the European Conservatives and Reformists. “The Alliance for the Union of Romanians, known for its extreme anti-Hungarian position, has joined the ECR group. Fidesz will never share a faction with such a party in the European Parliament. This is non-negotiable,” says Orbán’s party.