French President Emmanuel Macron on
Thursday warned against the growth of "nationalists" at the June
European elections but excepted Premier Giorgia Meloni form
their ranks telling the Economist that she had a "European
approach" and noting that she had "supported the asylum and
migration pact".
Of the other nationalist parties, Macron said "they're all
pro-Brexit in disguise" and were trying to "take Europe hostage
with the same false discourse".
Meloni is chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists
(ECR) group, which includes Spain's Vox, Poland's Law and
Justice, Eric Zemmour's French Reconquete (Reconquest), the
Sweden Democrats, and the Finns Party, a group which is led by
Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and is soon set to see
the arrival of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz
too.
The ECR was founded by former British Prime Minister, now
foreign minister, David Cameron in 2014.
The Tories left it after Brexit in 2016.
Meloni has followed a domestic nationalist agenda but has
cleaved to pro-EU and pro-NATO lines, especially regarding the
war in Ukraine.
The Italian PM says the ECR is hoping for a strong showing in
the June 8-9 European Parliament poll to upset the
centre-right-centre-left-liberal coalition that has ruled the EP
for a decade or more.
Meloni's domestic ally the League, led by Deputy Premier and
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, is in another European hard
right and nationalist group, Identity and Democracy (ID), along
with Alternative for Germany (AdF) and Marine Le Pen's National
Rally (RN) of France, which is currently polling well ahead of
Macron's Renaissance party amid speculation that she may succeed
him as French president in the next French presidential
elections.
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