Macron says no nationalists but Meloni has pro-EU stance (5)

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 2 - 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. (ANSA).