Premier Giorgia Meloni abstained in
the EU summit vote that nominated former German defence minister
Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission
chief while voting No to former Portuguese premier Antonio Costa
as new European Council chair and to Estonian Prime Minister
Kaja Kallas as new EU foreign policy chief.
The Italian leader said the pre-summit deal between von der
Leyen's European People's Party (EPP), Costa's Socialists and
Democrats (S&D) and Kallas's liberal Renew Europe to nominate
the trio was "wrong in method and substance".
She also reiterated her view that the agreement between the
European Parliament's biggest pro-European groups flew in the
face of the European electorate's will expressed in the recent
European elections where the right made gains and her European
Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group narrowly overtook the
liberals as third biggest force in the EP.
"The proposal formulated by the popular, socialist and liberal
parties for the new European summits is wrong in method and
substance," said the leader of Italy's ruling rightwing Brothers
of Italy (FDI) party on X.
"I decided not to support it out of respect for the citizens and
the indications that came from those citizens in the elections.
"Let us continue working to finally give Italy the weight it
deserves in Europe".
Meloni also said it would be "shameful" if the European
establishment penalised Italy because of her choice to abstain
on von der Leyen and vote against the other two top job
nominations.
"I don't agree that a contrary vote puts at risk our position in
the EU," she said.
"It would be disgraceful if they made us pay", Meloni said after
the summit ended late into the night after a long dinner on
Friday morning.
Meloni's ally Viktor Orban voted against von der Leyen, in
favour of Costa and abstained on Kallas.
The approval of only 15 of the 27 members states was enough to
secure approval for the nominations but it may be a different
story in the European Parliament next month when secret voting
could bring down the majority of the EPP, S&D and Renew on the
triumvirate.
The majority may be broadened to avoid so-called 'sniping' to
include the Greens, although Italy has been pushing for the ECR
to be included in the majority at the expense of the Greens
despite a veto from the Socialists to what it called a "far
right" grouping.
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