Giorgia Meloni hits out at EU top jobs backroom deal

Technically, von der Leyen doesn’t need the support of all EU leaders to be picked for another term. She can sail through with the backing of a majority of them and without the support of the Italian prime minister. 

One EU diplomat said, “There is no problem if we have to do this deal without Meloni.”

But politically, this is sensitive. Meloni is not only the leader of the bloc’s third-largest economy but is also one of the few European leaders who came out of the European election strengthened. 

EU leaders are meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels and hope to seal the top job package, so that the European Parliament can vote on a second term for von der Leyen in mid-July.

In an implicit attack on France’s Emmanuel Macron, who suffered a heavy defeat at the EU election, Meloni said she will “always fight against” those who push for “an oligarchic and technocratic vision of politics and society” because they try to “clearly keep power even from positions of weakness.”

“The point is not to exclude anyone. The point is that there is a political reality emerging from the European elections, which is the confirmation of the coalition between the EPP, S&D and Renew, a coalition to which ECR does not belong,” an Elysée official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said on Tuesday.