Italian PM Giorgia Meloni announced that she is stepping down as the president of the European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) party, the political organization behind the ECR group in Brussels. She said she fulfilled her duty by leading the party during the EU elections earlier this year, but that the time has come to pass the baton to a key ally and close friend, Polish former PM Mateusz Morawiecki, whose Law and Justice (PiS) party is the second largest delegation in ECR.
The announcement was made during the Atreju, an annual political festival organized by the ruling Brothers of Italy’s (FdI) youth wing, National Youth (GN) over the weekend.
The festival was attended by over 300 political guests, including Morawiecki, Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Lebanese PM Najib Mikati, as well as even representatives from Italy’s opposition parties.
This year’s Atreju focused on celebrating the Meloni government, which is undoubtedly the most stable among the large EU countries and provides a model for successful national conservative leadership throughout the continent.
This exceptional political stability, Meloni said in her address, is “what makes Italy more credible at the national and international level.” The PM said she was confident that, after two years of FdI leadership, the government—which also includes Matteo Salvini’s Lega (PfE) and the center-right Forza Italia (EPP)—will remain in office for its entire term, unlike its predecessors.
Meloni then told the audience that her decision to step down from the position of ECR president, which she held since 2020, has been in the making for a long time and she only stayed because she was asked to extend her term until the EU elections were over.
“Now that the elections have taken place, I think I have fulfilled my duty and I want to announce that I am going to resign as president of the [ECR],” she said, adding that the conservative bloc “deserves to have a president who can deal with it full time.”
She then endorsed Polish ex-PM Morawiecki, whose PiS holds 20 seats in the European Parliament and is second to FdI’s 24 seats within the ECR. PiS is still the largest party in Poland and was only ousted from government last year because current PM Donald Tusk was able to put together a liberal coalition with several smaller forces.
In his speech, Morawiecki did not hold back about his vision for European revival. He pointed to many of Europe’s greatest historical achievements, saying that the current generation has an “obligation” to live up to their legacy and not let the continent sleepwalk into global irrelevance. “If Europe does not change, we will become a colony of Asian powers and the older, weaker brother of America,” he said.
Borrowing the motto introduced by the Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, Morawiecki’s ‘pitch’ to lead the conservative movement focused on a vision of MEGA—“Make Europe Great Again:”
Today we have a great mission to fulfill. Future generations will hold us accountable for it! We must make Europe a safe land of traditional values, a land of family, a land of normality, a land of development and prosperity!
Europe has a MEGA past—let’s build its MEGA future too!
