The time has come to bring together “the best” of the Christian Democrat (EPP), sovereignist (ECR), and far-right (Identity and Democracy) groups to play a decisive role in the European Parliament, said the leader of the Italian party La Lega, Matteo Salvini, on Sunday 30 May, at the end of a conference organised in Cascais, Portugal by the ID group, which includes his party’s elected representatives.
According to him, such a recomposition in the European Parliament would allow a new conservative group to have “at least 130 members” in Parliament, Ansa agency reported. With 130 members, this group would become the third largest political group, between the Social Democrats of the S&D (146 members) and the centre-right group Renew Europe (98 members).
Mr Salvini, whose party has agreed to support Mario Draghi’s technical government, is banking on proximity, Christianity, and respect for traditions. “Europe is not the EU, nor the euro. These are millions of Europeans”, he said.
After the Hungarian Fidesz party left the European People’s Party (EPP) in mid-March (see EUROPE 12681/16), several European leaders—Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and Matteo Salvini—began talks on a new European alliance (see EUROPE 12692/13). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)