From the Envoy in Strasbourg – After choosing the President, it will be necessary to select the Commissioners. On the day of the vote in the European Parliament on a second von der Leyen term as the head of the European Commission, there is one more confirmation for the Italian European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto and his candidacy for the post of EU Commissioner in the next EU Executive, with his name given for sure by Forza Italia’s head of delegation, Fulvio Martusciello.
“The Commissioner should be Minister Fitto. We have already debated it extensively, and it will be him,” Martusciello told Eunews, just hours before von der Leyen’s much-anticipated plenary speech, with which the candidate will unveil the political priorities she has identified for a possible second term. And with which she seeks to grab the votes needed to cross the 361-approval threshold. Forza Italia, which is part of von der Leyen’s political family (the European People’s Party), has no doubts: “We have made it very clear that the Italian delegation will vote with an open ballot, without going in behind the booth or sheltering behind the curtain, for Von der Leyen,” the It Italian delegation leader said.
Everyone in Rome now converges on the Meloni loyalist in von der Leyen’s team. The 26 European Commissioners are expressions of the government, and the final decision is up to the Premier. However, also government allies endorsed him: the League, with Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti “rooting for Fitto,” and from Forza Italia. Vice-Premier Antonio Tajani tried to suggest that the Commissioner should be an expression of the only governing party that is part of the most important political family in Europe -the EPP, and thus Forza Italia – but he never opposed the candidacy of the man who is managing on Meloni’s behalf the dialogue with Brussels on the NRRP.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
