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Italy’s Salvini hopes France will get rid of ‘terrible’ Macron

As the French government finds itself in a precarious situation, Italy’s populists continue to stick the boot in.

Published: 23 January 2019 12:33 CET
Italy's Salvini hopes France will get rid of 'terrible' Macron
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

In the latest in a series of incendiary comments aimed at maligned centrist French president Emmanuel Macron, Italy's far-right Interior Minister worsened already strained relations between Rome and Paris by saying he hoped the French could soon free themselves of their “terrible president.”

“The opportunity will come on May 26 (the European elections) when finally the French people will be able to take back control of its future, destiny, (and) pride, which are poorly represented by a character like Macron”, Matteo Salvini said in his latest Facebook video taunting the government across the Alps.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, said he felt “close, with all my heart… to the French people, the millions of men and women who live in France under a terrible government and terrible president.”

READ ALSO: Italy accuses France of trying to dump underage migrants over the border

The French government is weakened after facing an outpouring of public anger in the gilets jaunes(Yellow Vests) protests that began in November, initially as a response to a fuel tax increase.

Thousands of rioters have been arrested in ten consecutive weekends of violence and unrest.

Italy’s populist leaders have publicly cheered on the protesters.

The fresh attack on Macron, who signed a new friendship treaty with Germany on Tuesday, was just the latest in a barrage of taunts and criticisms coming from Italy’s government this week.

On Monday, Salvini blamed French oil interests in Libya for Paris’ alleged lack of interest in “stabilising the situation” there.

And Italy’s ambassador was summoned by the French government yesterday in protest after Italy’s other deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio blamed France for impoverishing Africa and accused the country of continuing to “colonise” African nations.

The Five Star Movement (M5S) leader reportedly said on Sunday: “In order to keep the Africans in Africa, it would be enough for the French to stay at home.”

Relations between the two capitals, usually close EU allies, have deteriorated sharply since the M5S-League coalition became the European Union's first populist-only government in June last year.

Italy's far-right populist League (formerly the Northern League) is a close European ally of France's National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, formerly the National Front which, like Salvini's party, changed its name early last year in attempt to shake off its reputation for racism.

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EUROPEAN UNION

Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she would stand in upcoming European Parliament elections, a move apparently calculated to boost her far-right party, although she would be forced to resign immediately.

Published: 28 April 2024 15:54 CEST
Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, came top in Italy’s 2022 general election with 26 percent of the vote.

It is polling at similar levels ahead of the European elections on from June 6-9.

With Meloni heading the list of candidates, Brothers of Italy could exploit its national popularity at the EU level, even though EU rules require that any winner already holding a ministerial position must immediately resign from the EU assembly.

“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 — creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni told a party event in the Adriatic city of Pescara.

In a fiery, sweeping speech touching briefly on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni extolled her coalition government’s one-and-a-half years in power and what she said were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families and defend Christian values.

After speaking for over an hour in the combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

“I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe,” she said, suggesting that only she could unite Europe’s conservatives.

“I’m doing it because in addition to being president of Brothers of Italy I’m also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics,” she added.

In her rise to power, Meloni, as head of Brothers of Italy, often railed against the European Union, “LGBT lobbies” and what she has called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, appealing to many voters with her straight talk.

“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian” she famously declared at a 2019 rally.

She used a similar tone Sunday, instructing voters to simply write “Giorgia” on their ballots.

“I have always been, I am, and will always be proud of being an ordinary person,” she shouted.

EU rules require that “newly elected MEP credentials undergo verification to ascertain that they do not hold an office that is incompatible with being a Member of the European Parliament,” including being a government minister.

READ ALSO: Why is Italy’s government being accused of helping tax dodgers?

The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right Lega party.

The EU Parliament elections do not provide for alliances within Italy’s parties, meaning that Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with its coalition partners Lega and Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi.

The Lega and Forza Italia are polling at about seven percent and eight percent, respectively.

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