A representative from Germany’s center-Right parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), has stated that, at the present moment, a potential alliance between the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and the European People’s Party (EPP) is out of the question.
Jürgen Hardt, a foreign policy spokesman for the two German parties, known as the Union, told the press that even though Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia is a member of the EPP, the political orientations of the Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) and Salvini’s Lega, the two other parties in Italy’s ruling center-Right coalition, “are largely incompatible with those of the EPP.”
“There is no reason for further cooperation with other parties of the Italian government in the European Parliament, as long as they cooperate openly anti-European forces such as the German AfD,” Hardt stated.
The Union’s foreign policy spokesman’s statements come following multiple meetings between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the ECR chief, and her EPP counterpart Manfred Weber, an MEP for and one of the leaders of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), who is considered something of a power broker in European Union politics.
Meloni and Weber first met in an official capacity on November 11th, following Italy’s center-Right coalition’s victory in the country’s general elections two months earlier. The ECR and EPP leaders met again in Rome on Thursday, January 5th, sometime after the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, as The European Conservative previously reported.
Before Meloni’s victory in September, Weber had campaigned for the center-Right coalition, saying, among other things in favor of the alliance, that: “Europe needs a stable centre-Right government in Rome. Forza Italia will remain a pro-European force, and the EPP will be at its side”.
In the wake of the Qatargate scandal, in which the Belgian judiciary is allegedly investigating more than 60 MEPs, most of whom are members of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) grouping, Meloni has sought to dismantle the long-held alliance between the left-wing liberals, the Socialist & Democrats (S&D), and the center-Right liberals, the EPP.
Meloni previously referred to the Qatargate scandal a “socialist job.”
It is worth noting that the German politician’s statements have been contradicted by Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) MEP Nicola Procaccini, who last week told the Italian press: “The dialogue between Conservatives and Populars continues and is strengthened also thanks to the fact that the two political forces are consolidating in their respective countries.”
Despite the Hardt’s statements, it remains to be seen whether the apparent rapprochement between the ECR and the EPP will lead to anything meaningful in terms of an alliance or common strategy at a European level.
