Everyone is looking for Meloni. After von der Leyen, Le Pen is also pushing for a (difficult) alliance in the EU Parliament

Brussels – Now, Marine Le Pen is also coming out, with ten days to the opening of the polls for the European elections in the 27 EU member states. “Now is the time to unite. It would be really useful. If we succeed, we can become the second largest group in the European Parliament,” said the most charismatic figure of the French far-right Rassemblement National to the Italian Prime Minister and president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party, Giorgia Meloni, who arrived yesterday (May 26)) in response to questions from the Corriere della Sera  daily at an election campaign event in Lillers.

Le Pen is eyeing an alliance between all conservative and far-right parties in the European Parliament for the next legislature, making the current members of the ECR (which Fratelli d’Italia is part of) and those of Identity and Democracy (of which the League is a member) converge into a single transnational political group. Just last week, under pressure from Rassemblement National, the ID Presidency expelled Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) group because of the statements of its leading candidate, Maximilian Krah, on the failure to condemn the past Nazi special forces SS. Having dumped the inconvenient German ally and with a major electoral affirmation of her party on the horizon (which could become the largest delegation to the EU Parliament in the next legislature), Le Pen is now aiming to forge a solid post-electoral alliance with one of the hegemonic figures of the European right, aiming to make a field that so far has been highly fragmented field count as much as possible due to a change in the balance of power in the European Parliament increasingly to the right.

 “I think an opportunity like this should not be missed,” Le Pen warned, sending a message to Meloni on the fact that “she and I agree on the essential issues, among which is taking back control of our respective countries.” According to the latest projections of the composition of the next EU Parliament, ECR could win 71 seats and ID 68, in addition to AfD aiming for 17 and the Hungarians of Fidesz (currently unaffiliated, but there has been close contact between Meloni and Viktor Orbán for a possible entry into the European family of conservatives) who will try hard to maintain the current 12 share. If all these forces were to unite – although it appears at present unlikely to see AfD again accepted into an overall alliance – such a far-right political group could stand at 168 seats (or 151 without the Germans), becoming the second largest behind the European People’s Party (projected at 176 seats) and ahead of that of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (144).

The real sticking point, however, always remains the question of the strategies of individual national parties, all of which claim sovereignism, almost always on a collision course with their allies or potential allies. Not the least of these is the crucial question of the explicit opening coming from the current European Commission President and Spitzenkandidatin (joint candidate) of the European People’s Party (EPP), Ursula von der Leyen, to Meloni for possible cooperation in the next legislature. Like the allies in the League, in the ID Group, Le Pen also rejects the scenario of a second von der Leyen term: “The President of the Commission knows that her time is up, and she is trying to buy votes. However, as far as we are concerned, we will never, I repeat never, vote for von der Leyen, who has conducted a disastrous policy for the peoples of Europe,” she responded to an explicit question about possible support of the right-wing maxi-group for a new term at the Commission, defining the one coming to a close as “toxic.” On the other hand, President von der Leyen at the Eurovision Debate 2024 categorically rejected the idea of opening up to Rassemblement National or AfD and made clear that cooperation would be with individual MEPs and “not with ECR.”  “They are friends of Putin and want to destroy Europe.”