Is the Franco-German axis over? Brothers of Italy think so

What’s behind Meloni’s disappointment over the EU job nomination package?

Transcript

00:00Reactions have continued to follow Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's opposition

00:05of the top EU jobs nomination deal agreed by the EU Council.

00:09Meloni's opposition last week included an abstention vote on Ursula von der Leyen as

00:14a candidate running for re-election as EU Commission President.

00:18With only a couple of weeks to go before the vote, the Brothers of Italy party group leader

00:23in the lower house says the Italian leader's stance is justified.

00:27The aim of the European nomination is to receive the message that comes from the

00:34streets and it's a clear message.

00:37It's a message that has rejected Macron's policy, that has rejected Scholz's policy

00:45and it hasn't rejected it because the Italians or the Europeans in general say so, but because

00:52mainly these policies are rejected nationally by the French and the Germans, so you don't

01:00see a single reason why you should ostensibly support a Franco-German axis when in reality

01:12this axis has been demolished by the voters of the two countries.

01:18Some analysts believe the risk that Italy will end up being isolated is not an option

01:22as the strategy Meloni is pursuing is seen as what counts.

01:26It's a game that is in the hands of the President of the Council, which we must absolutely assume

01:32has a strategy.

01:34Naturally, at the European level, the mechanism is very different from what we know at the

01:40national level.

01:41In the particular case of Giorgia Meloni, we must also consider that she is the President

01:48of the so-called ECR, the Conservative and European Party, and therefore has a double

01:56configuration, her presence in this, let's say, party of the European nominees, and naturally

02:03certainly influences the strategy that she intends to adopt.

02:07Meanwhile, the second round of legislative elections in France is also seen as crucial.

02:32Meloni's government has not put forward any candidate.

02:36Previous European Commission appointments have gone forward despite opposition even

02:41from large member states.