Brussels – A recognition for Italy or a victory for Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government. Either both or neither. Italian politics in Brussels are divided over the appointment of Raffaele Fitto to Executive Vice President of the European Commission with responsibility for Reforms and Cohesion. Government parties rejoice, but the delegations of the 5-Star Movement and the Green and Left Alliance do not stand for it. Dem delegation leader Nicola Zingaretti makes an appeal to Meloni’s loyalist: “Free yourself from the anti-European rhetoric of the government that indicated him.”
Fitto’s entry into the circle of six executive vice presidents appointed by von der Leyen has been holding court for weeks. For the first time, a member of a radical right-wing party sits in an apex role in the European executive. Indeed, Fratelli d’Italia did not support the re-election of von der Leyen as the head of the European Commission, and its group in the EU Parliament—the European Conservatives and Reformists—were left out of the majority consisting, once again, of Populars, Social Democrats, and Liberals, with outside support from the Greens.
In the end, despite the warnings of the three progressive groups in the EU majority (S&D, Renew, and Greens), von der Leyen confirmed the rumors that wanted Fitto as executive vice president. However, by downsizing her delegations, at least in part: Fitto will not inherit the economic portfolio from Paolo Gentiloni but will be in charge of Reforms and Cohesion Policy. He will oversee the implementation of the NRRP in the member states with Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. “We will draw on his vast experience to help modernize and strengthen our cohesion, investment and growth policies,” von der Leyen said when introducing the College to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Right rejoices, Procaccini in opposition: “No ideologies; support Italian candidacy.”
Nicola Procaccini, MEP for Fratelli d’Italia and co-chair of ECR—a role that was Fitto’s own—is over the moon: “The indication of Raffaele Fitto makes us proud, I say this first of all as an Italian because Italy did not have a vice president in the last legislature, in the last European season; it has one today,” Procaccini immediately claimed on the sidelines of the presentation of the delegations. Addressing the opposition parties, he added, “I hope that colleagues of other political visions can also converge in supporting an authoritative candidacy such as that of Raffaele Fitto, who is not just a conservative or Fratelli d’Italia candidacy, it is an Italian candidacy.”
Of the same vein was the comment by Fulvio Martusciello, head of Forza Italia’s delegation in Brussels, that Fitto’s appointment is “a recognition that strengthens Italy’s role in Europe.” But also an award for “the commitment of our government and the decisive work of Forza Italia and the European People’s Party.” More restrained was the joy of the Lega, which in a post on X commented on “the excellent news for Italy,” saying it was certain that Fitto “will know how to defend our country’s interests in the best way possible.”
M5S and AVS against vice presidency to Fitto, Tridico: “A handful of air”
On the other hand, the European delegations of the 5-Star Movement and the Green and Left Alliance lashed out at von der Leyen’s choice, seeking to downplay the supposed tricolour victory. Pasquale Tridico, head of the 5-Star delegation, called it “a handful of air,” pointing out that “Italy will have a badge to show off—the executive vice-presidency— but it gets delegations that in Ursula Von der Leyen’s previous term were given to a small, non-founding EU country like Portugal.” While AVS MEPs, who are split between the Greens and the European Left in the European Parliament, in a joint note called “totally unacceptable the allocation of special posts to representatives of sovereignist governments that hinder any European integration project and are subordinate to the logic of wars and arms races.” The six from the Green and Left Alliance, and their leader in Italy, Angelo Bonelli, also question the competencies of Fitto, “a minister who in Italy has totally mismanaged NRRP funds and supported differentiated autonomy that denies any principle of social cohesion.”
Among the opposition benches—but the largest delegation of Social Democrats, the backbone of the Ursula 2.0 majority—the Democratic Party is undoubtedly the most diplomatic. Nicola Zingaretti bitterly noted the birth of a “conservative commission mirroring the European governments of this moment” while at the same time asking Fitto to “free himself from the anti-European rhetoric of the government that indicated him.” From Camilla Laureti, Dem MEP and vice-president of S&D comes a warning: “We will listen carefully to Fitto during the hearings because surely the position taken by his group so far has not gone in the direction of that strengthening of the Union that can also guarantee Italy’s interests.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
