The leader of the Italian far-right League party and current vice president of the Government, Matteo Salvini, and his ideological colleague Marine Le Pen, head of the French National Rally, staged their union this Sunday in view of the next European elections during the national convention held by the Italian training.
“You in Italy and we in France are united in the same fight, the fight for freedom, for the homeland, I know how much you value your freedoms,” said the French politician from the box in Pontida, a small town in Lombardy that hosts annually the main meeting of the far right led by Salvini.
The union of both politicians served to stage their determined support for a coalition between right-wing formations ahead of the 2024 European elections, despite the reluctance of the European Popular Party to agree with the most extremist formations.
For this reason, after the event, Matteo Salvini’s own League assured that both leaders are considering organizing a “great international event” at the end of the year that brings together all their allies in Europe, whom they consider “alternatives to the left”, and the starting signal for the elections.
“Our destiny is victory in Italy and in the European Union. We are destined to win,” said the Italian.
The inclusion of Le Pen as the undisputed star of the program demonstrates Salvini’s European aspirations, since the stage in which the union was consecrated has brought together La Liga followers since 1990 in their initial independence aspirations and, in recent years, in its national vocation.
In fact, during his message he expressed his desire for Le Pen to become president of France: “If we have to choose between Macron and Marine Le Pen I have no doubt: my whole life with Le Pen.”
And the Frenchwoman returned the glove: “When there is a party like the League and a leader like Salvini you know it is the right choice, in fact the only choice.”
The exchange of adulations occurred at the same time that the Italian Prime Minister, Giorga Meloni, of the Brothers of Italy formation, traveled to the island of Lampedusa with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the midst of the migration crisis after the arrival of 10,000 people in just three days.
In a reference to that visit, Le Pen asked to “defend the ports” as Salvini did when he was Minister of the Interior, currently judicially accused of blocking the disembarkation of immigrants saved by the Open Arms ship in the Mediterranean in 2019.
“At that time, all of Europe admired Italy and we, as allies, were proud of Salvini and the Lega,” he added.
The electoral campaign for the European Parliament has a special meaning for the Italian Government since each of the three right-wing parties that make up its coalition belong to a different group from the conservative forces in the European Parliament.
However, the reissue of that pact causes havoc among the most moderate wing of the Italian Executive, represented by Antonio Tajani, Foreign Minister and former president of the European Parliament, who does not want to ally with Le Pen, alleging that the popular ones do not share the same values.
“I here today and Giorgia in Lampedusa are the synthesis of the same objective and common destiny. They will not be able to divide us, we have different cultures and sense of militancy, but the united center-right wins,” Salvini contrasted.
