Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was called out by French populist Marine Le Pen on Saturday during a video address to the ‘Winds of Change’ convention for not coming out against the second term of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Failing to live up to her reputation as a populist firebrand, Giorgia Meloni has governed from the centre since coming into power in 2022 and has sought to deepen Rome’s ties with Brussels rather than opposing the globalist agenda of the likes of Von der Leyen.
Specifically calling her out for this, former presidential candidate and the leader of the National Rally in France, Marine Le Pen said in a video address to a convention of the Identity and Democracy (ID) party in Rome on Saturday: “A message for Giorgia: will you support a second mandate for Von der Leyen or not? I believe so. You must the truth to the Italians, you must tell what you will do.”
Le Pen said that her party in France, which is a member of the ID group in the European Parliament, will “fight with all possible forces to prevent a second mandate for Von der Leyen.”
The French populist went on to say that she believes only Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and his League party will actually stand up to Von der Leyen’s attempts at a second term following the European Parliament elections in June.
While delivering some wins for conservatives like banning lab-grown meat and introducing further crackdowns on surrogacy births, the central issue that saw her come to power, reducing illegal migration, has only continued to grow worse under her leadership.
Indeed, in 2023, according to information from the Interior Ministry, 155,754 migrants arrived in Italy in 2023, a fifty per cent increase over the previous year when 103,846 illegals were recorded reaching Italy.
Meloni had promised a hardline approach towards illegal migration, particularly the people smuggler-operated boats which dump hundreds of thousands of illegals on Italy’s shores every year. Prompting hysterical reactions, Meloni had suggested instituting a naval blockade in the Mediterranean to stop the migrant boats from crossing the sea from North Africa.
However, rather than taking a stop-the-boats approach, Meloni has so far sought to inculcate herself within the Brussels structure and has been a key ally of Ursula von der Leyen’s in negotiating large handouts to countries such as Tunisia last year and more recently Egypt, in exchange for their government’s supposed commitment to help prevent people smuggling operations.
The cosying up to Von der Leyen and the failures of her government to crack down on illegal migration have led to many on the populist right branding Meloni as a globalist in populist clothing. The Italian prime minister has so far not made her intentions on who her party will back for the next European Commission president, despite supposedly more centrist parties like the Républicains in France — who are in the same voting group as the EU chief — already vowing not to support Von der Leyen.