All posts tagged: Giorgia Meloni

Romanian hard-right chief pitches himself as Europe’s next Meloni – POLITICO

Romanian hard-right chief pitches himself as Europe’s next Meloni – POLITICO

Published by Sam

“Even if we are conservative, which is not to the liking of the establishment in Brussels, even if we believe in many of the values President Trump believes in,” Simion said, “we also believe that we need a strong, united Europe.” The politician insisted he would “work together” with the EU’s mainstream parties if elected, with Romania’s full accession to the visa-free Schengen zone, pushing for a directly elected EU executive and boosting industrial production in the bloc at the top of his list of priorities. But unlike Meloni, Simion has openly vowed he would push back against Brussels even if that means breaking EU rules in a move more reminiscent of the populist leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico. “I would be a liar to say we would respect EU law,” he said. “If tomorrow [there is] a new law that we didn’t vote for … or laws that are not good for Romania,” he said, “I will try to use all my powers to stop what is doing harm …

Croatia election winner cozies up with far right in new government – POLITICO

Croatia election winner cozies up with far right in new government – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

The Homeland Movement — or DP — was formed by nationalist crooner Miroslav Škoro in 2020 to provide a more patriotic and far-right alternative to HDZ, arguably Croatia’s most powerful party, which underwent major restructuring under Plenković. “Plenković made a significant effort to expel and neutralize far-right figures from HDZ, but now a lot of those who were affiliated with HDZ are part of the Homeland Movement,” Hrvoje Klasić, a historian and expert on the far right in Croatia, told POLITICO. Škoro has since been ousted from the party, and while DP members claim to have softened their approach to certain topics, the party remains synonymous with hardline, socially conservative ideas. “A lot of the voters who used to support HDZ now vote for the Homeland Movement. If, say, Plenković was removed and someone more right-wing came back to HDZ, then the Homeland Movement would completely lose its support,” he continued. Plenković — just like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — has, since April’s election, placed himself on his HZD’s list of candidates for June’s …

Frans Timmermans tried to destroy European farming, says Italian agriculture minister – POLITICO

Frans Timmermans tried to destroy European farming, says Italian agriculture minister – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

“And maybe they arrive through my ports as they once did and maybe I can rebuild an economic force that I can’t build with my country’s strength alone,” he mused. “I don’t think Timmermans is crazy. I think he coldly calculated in the interest of the Netherlands and not in the interest of Europe.” A spokesperson for Timmermans, who stood down last August to run in national elections, declined to comment on the Italian farm minister’s broadside. Lollobrigida doubled down on his claims in an interview with POLITICO. “If you reduce internal production, Europe’s food would be imported through Rotterdam,” he insisted, shaking his head as he munched Roman cheese. “It’s what happened from the 1600s to the 1750s in Europe, when the Netherlands became an empire with the East India company.” “Some things aren’t coincidences.” The bizarre statement was merely the latest by Lollobrigida, who was in Parma to open the CIBUS food fair, Italy’s largest agricultural show. His opening speech rambled from the birth of Italian food in the first millennium to the culinary devastation …

Journalists at Italian public media strike over Meloni government’s influence – POLITICO

Journalists at Italian public media strike over Meloni government’s influence – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Last month, a prominent author accused RAI of censorship after the reading of an antifascist monologue was abruptly canceled “for editorial reasons.” The monologue had been scheduled to be broadcast on the RAI 3 TV channel on April 25, the public holiday that celebrates Italy’s freedom from fascism in 1945. Usigrai, the major journalists’ union at the broadcaster, said in a statement on Monday: “We strike to defend the autonomy and independence of the public radio and television service from the pervasive control of information spaces by politicians.” The broadcaster countered that it is “committed to safeguarding the values ​​of pluralism and freedom of expression.” The Meloni government, which declined to comment for this story, has been accused of making strategic use of defamation lawsuits to silence media dissent, including complaints against newspaper Domani and journalist Roberto Saviano. Meloni’s brother-in-law and cabinet minister Francesco Lollobrigida filed a criminal complaint against a TV commentator on La7, an independent channel, for saying that Lollobrigida spoke “like a Gauleiter,” referring to regional leaders of Adolf Hitler’s party. Defamation in Italy …

Has the EU really just found €400B it could spend on defense? – POLITICO

Has the EU really just found €400B it could spend on defense? – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

As governments increasingly see the need to put the continent on a war footing, the plan would offer a way out for Europe’s policymakers who are desperately trying to find cash down the back of the sofa. They know they have to pay for it; they just don’t want to. Other options could see the ESM shift to respond to Russia’s aggression more broadly, four of the people said, such as by helping to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine or by providing cheap loans to countries like the Baltic states which may find their borrowing costs rising. Russia’s war in Ukraine — a country harboring EU membership ambitions — is grinding into a third year and Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House risks leaving Europe in the lurch, as he demands all NATO countries to hit the target of 2 percent of gross domestic product spent on defense. But soaring debts in the bloc’s most powerful capitals, messy domestic politics, and tight spending rules enforced by the European Commission are limiting the …

Von der Leyen opens the door to Europe’s hard right – POLITICO

Von der Leyen opens the door to Europe’s hard right – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

The choice In her campaign pitch on Monday night, she told the audience, which included people tuning in to the livestream online and via about 100 “watch parties” around the world, she wanted to fight for a strong Europe for the sake of her children and grandchildren. Von der Leyen portrayed herself as a unifying candidate and a safe pair of hands with the experience to keep leading the Commission in troubled times, warning that Europe faces dangers in the form of attacks from Vladimir Putin’s proxies who seek to undermine EU democracy. Eickhout was the winner of a snap viewers’ poll taken among those watching. Speaking after the debate, he predicted that von der Leyen’s offer to the ECR would define the rest of the campaign. “What I heard was that she’s not excluding [working with the ECR] … We Greens exclude them and I think this election will then be about this choice,” he said. “Within ECR you have the same people that want to weaken Europe, that want to water down our …

Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni to run in EU election – POLITICO

Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni to run in EU election – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Meloni is the latest major Italian political figure to announce her intentions to run in the June election, and her move seems designed to use her personal popularity to boost her party’s chances in the European vote. A spokesperson for the European Parliament told POLITICO that if Meloni were to take up a seat at the European Parliament, she would have to resign from office — a highly unlikely scenario.  Meloni’s move is not an uncommon strategy among Italian leaders and leading politicians. In 2009, then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ran as his party’s lead candidate in the EU election, and stayed on as head of the Italian government after his party finished first in the election. Matteo Renzi did the same thing five years later. Meloni’s party already tops the latest polls in Italy, and is predicted to get 27.2 percent of the vote, ahead of the center-left PD (20.3 percent) and the Five Stars Movement (16.8 percent). Both Elly Schlein, leader of the PD, and Antonio Tajani, the current foreign minister who is from the …

Italy can do without Russian gas, says energy minister – POLITICO

Italy can do without Russian gas, says energy minister – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

This G7 will need to look for innovative models to accelerate investments, including private-public partnerships, Pichetto Fratin said. “We certainly need to revise the financial system, to find mechanisms that overcome the current voluntary system,” he said.   While Italy, which currently holds the rotating G7 presidency, is in a leadership position at this weekend’s climate talks, the Meloni government is developing a record in Europe of digging its heels in on climate issues. Since Meloni came to power, Italy has repeatedly voted against or abstained on votes on environmental issues in the EU, such as packaging rules and phasing out combustion engines by 2035. Environmental groups say the government is not interested in climate change, despite a spate of extreme weather events in Italy over the past few years including droughts and the collapse of a glacier. Meloni last year blamed catastrophic floods in the Emilia Romagna region on bad weather. Pichetto Fratin denied that the Meloni government is not prioritizing climate change, arguing that the government’s target is to generate nearly two-thirds of …

Salvini’s last hope rests on building a bridge to Sicily – POLITICO

Salvini’s last hope rests on building a bridge to Sicily – POLITICO

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Salvini is pushing to launch the project by June, when European elections will be held that could make or break his leadership of the League.  The timing will be critical. As electoral support for the League shrinks, Salvini’s party colleagues are running out of patience. All 15 members of one local party association in Lombardy, a League heartland, resigned in protest last month.  “Salvini singlehandedly rewrote the party’s ideology to be nationalist,” said Daniele Albertazzi, professor of politics at the University of Surrey. “It is as if Catalonia autonomists wished to represent people from Madrid. Activists and voters were OK with this, only as long as he was successful.”  In February the party took just 3.7 percent in regional elections in Sardinia. League voters feel betrayed by the party’s forays in the previous legislature into two governments, which forced them to make compromises — for example supporting onerous pandemic rules.  The doubters have found their voice. One MEP, Gianantonio Da Re, was recently kicked out of the party after calling Salvini a cretin. But other League …

Brussels mayor gives Europe’s hard-right a free hit before EU election – POLITICO

Brussels mayor gives Europe’s hard-right a free hit before EU election – POLITICO

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Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, from the hard-right governing Likud party, compared what he described as the tyrannical woke agenda as another kind of totalitarianism, sitting alongside jihadist terror. “They are hiding behind so-called liberal values but the nature of this movement is anti-liberal,” he told POLITICO.  Captive audience Over two days, the conference buzzed with phrases such as “nihilistic atheism,” the “globalist socialist agenda,” “gender ideology,” “Bolshewokeism,” and “activist judges in Strasbourg,” which flew from the stage around the cramped space. Farage, closely tailed by a security detail, raged against the U.K.’s new smoking ban, performed a few Donald Trump impressions, and on Wednesday stood in the wings chuckling along admiringly as Orbán explained why Central Europe is historically suspicious of supranational political structures.  “Mr. Orbán got a new subject for his campaign: Freedom. The city here was very stupid,” Attila K. Molnar, the director of the National University of Public Service in Budapest, said. On social media, Farage also blasted the mayor on Wednesday afternoon.  Source link