ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on Sunday that she would run in the next European Parliament elections, ostensibly to strengthen her far-right party. However, she would have to step down straight away.
With 26% of the vote, Meloni’s neo-Fascist Brothers of Italy party won the general election in Italy in 2022.
Similar amounts of polling are being conducted in advance of the June 6–9 European elections.
Despite the fact that EU regulations mandate that the winner who is currently holding a ministerial position resign from the EU assembly immediately, Brothers of Italy could take use of their national popularity at the EU level with Meloni leading the list of candidates.
“We aim to accomplish in Europe precisely what we accomplished in Italy on September 25, 2022—building a majority that unites the right’s forces to ultimately drive the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni spoke at a Pescara, an Adriatic city, party.
In a heated, far-reaching address, Meloni praised her coalition government’s one and a half years in office and what she claimed were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families, and preserve Christian values. She touched briefly on themes ranging from artificial beef to surrogacy and Ramadan.
Meloni announced her decision to seek for a seat in the European Parliament after speaking for more than an hour in a combative tone reminiscent of her past election campaigns.
She claimed that only she could bring the conservatives in Europe together, saying, “I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe.”
“I’m doing it because I’m the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics, in addition to being the president of Brothers of Italy,” she continued.
Although Meloni’s action is permitted under EU standards, Teneo Intelligence head of research Wolfango Piccoli called it “a pragmatic, shameless electoral calculation.”
“It’s felt that she will use her influence to secure more votes,” he stated, citing polls that indicate having Meloni at the head of the list may boost Brothers of Italy’s performance by two to three percentage points.
