The election campaign help for Silvio Berlusconi brought a lot of criticism to EPP boss Manfred Weber. Now a cross-party initiative in the European Parliament is aimed at the CSU politician.
Three German MEPs have called on the head of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, to prevent a right-wing government in Italy. “Basic European values must not be sacrificed in order to buy government participation,” said a letter to CSU politician Weber on Tuesday. Katarina Barley (SPD), Daniel Freund (Greens) and Moritz Körner (FDP) signed it. The letter is available from the German Press Agency.
Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing extremist Fratelli d’Italia won the parliamentary elections in Italy at the end of September. It is expected to form a coalition with the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative Forza Italia. In Europe, Forza Italia belongs to the EPP Christian Democratic party family. CSU Vice Manfred Weber is both President of the party association and head of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.
Weber had already been criticized during the election campaign for supporting the controversial ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia. After the election, CSU boss Markus Söder also said: “Forza Italia is not the partner that we consider right.”
Barley, Freund and Körner now warn in the letter to Weber that Meloni represents “right-wing populist positions that are incompatible with basic European values, that openly call for discrimination against people and that deny the most atrocious crimes in European history”. Italy must not become a precedent for Europe and “even more right-wing extremist parties should make pacts with conservative forces in their striving for power.” Those who ally themselves with the extreme right do not tame them.
“We would therefore like to ask you to also commit the EPP members in Italy to this pro-democracy and pro-European consensus,” the letter said. It is not too late “to prevent a right-wing extremist head of government Giorgia Meloni in Italy”. Weber, as head of the EPP, is therefore asked to communicate to the Italian members “that the EPP must not participate in a right-wing extremist government in Italy”. Otherwise, Forza Italia should not have a future in the EPP.
Source: Stern
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