Center-right crushed by European alliances
Ursula von der Leyen she will also be the president of the European Commission for the five-year period 2024-2029. The games are closed. The rest is just chatter and background from a long electoral campaign in view of the vote on 9 June 2024 for the European Parliament, where each leader looks more at national balances than at those in Brussels.
The proposal, launched in absolute preview by Affaritaliani.itby Emmanuel Macron to bring Mario Draghi at the helm of the Commission was quickly liquidated by Antonio Tajani. The secretary of Forza Italia explained that Von der Leyen’s name will be reconfirmed in the coming weeks at the Bucharest congress of the European People’s Party.
Behind the scenes, as appears to Affaritaliani.it, there is already a clear pact with the leaders of the PSE, the EU social democrats of which the PD is part, for an encore of Ursula. Besides, there are no other solutions. Draghi is absolutely not liked German CDU-CSU, owner of the EPP, for how she managed the ECB on interest rates (always at zero) and the purchase of government bonds from highly indebted countries such as Italy. “It’s not even being talked about,” explain sources close to Manfred Weber.
The EPP-Conservatives hypothesis absolutely doesn’t have the numbers even if it were to expand. The Identity and Democracy of the League and its right-wing allies who met in Florence last Sunday. The liberals would also be needed Macron. And already the Ppe excludes agreements with the German, French and Dutch right-wingers, let alone if the French president and his rival Marine Le Pen could ever coexist. Impossible. No way.
This is why at Forza Italia we continue to repeat that whatever happens the EPP will be in the next majority because they already know that it will be Ursula’s encore. Giorgia Meloni has timidly spoken of the “perimeter of the centre-right” also in Europe and cannot do otherwise. You certainly cannot say before the vote that you will ally yourself with the Democratic Party Elly Schlein.
But the prime minister will not be able to stay in the opposition, as Salvini will comfortably do, due to too many open games and dossiers on the table (migrants, Pnrr, banking union, ESM, reform of the EU Pact). And so? Center-right crushed in Europe. Forza Italia is confidently in government with Ursula, the League is confidently in opposition and the Brothers of Italy will have to decide whether to vote yes, biting the bullet and splitting the ECR, or at most abstain.
But in the end Melonswho almost certainly wants his own man in the next Commission Adolfo Urso, will only be able to tag along and vote for Von der Leyen given that each commissioner must obtain the trust of the majority of the Euro Chamber. And no FdI exponent would have it without the Prime Minister’s yes to the reconfirmation of Von der Leyen. Subscribe to the newsletter