Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein made it clear during an ANSA Forum on Monday that her centre-left group, part of the Party of European Socialists (PES), will never form alliances at the EU level with the right-wing ECR Conservatives or the Identity and Democracy (ID) group.
Premier Giorgia Meloni chairs the ECR, which includes her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party. Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini’s League is in the ID group alongside Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), Geert Wilders’ Dutch Freedom Party, and the Austrian Freedom Party, among others.
“There will never be alliances with Meloni’s Conservative group or with the Identity and Democracy group, which Salvini is a member of,” Schlein asserted at the Forum. “This is a commitment shared in Berlin with (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz and the other socialists.”
Schlein also highlighted that the PES has their own candidate, Nicolas Schmit, to replace European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She emphasised the Socialist group’s ambition to become the largest faction in the European Parliament.
“We want a federal Europe,” Schlein stated, “one which completes a path of integration stranded halfway amid national selfishness.”
Furthermore, she expressed PD’s support for the EU achieving “strategic autonomy” on defence matters “within the Atlantic Alliance.”
