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A spat over media freedom and Giorgia Meloni’s refusal to endorse Ursula von der Leyen for a second term at the helm of the European Commission have exposed cracks in the Italian premier’s relationship with Brussels.
During her nearly two years in power, Meloni has forged better than expected ties with the EU leadership, toning down her Eurosceptic rhetoric and carefully managing Italy’s fragile public finances with an eye to keep investors happy.
Von der Leyen has also courted the right-wing prime minister as she sought support from EU leaders to stay in office. The German politician has backed the Italian leader’s tough approach to migration and agreed to change some of the original spending plans for Italy’s €200bn share of EU recovery funds.
But that partnership is now showing signs of strain.
Meloni last week took the unprecedented step of accusing Brussels of falling prey to “fake news” peddled by “disinformation and mystification professionals” after the commission issued a report highlighting media freedom issues in Italy.
A commission spokesperson said they received Meloni’s letter and defended the methodology of the report.
The Italian leader’s stark remarks came weeks after she abstained from an EU leaders’ decision to nominate von der Leyen for another term. Meloni then instructed members of her Brothers of Italy party to vote against von der Leyen’s confirmation in the European parliament.
Analysts say that the two incidents herald a period of increased volatility between Rome and Brussels, as Meloni seeks to bolster her nationalist credentials. Tensions are looming over fiscal policy, the pace of the EU’s green transition and other issues.
Pietro Benassi, a former Italian ambassador to the EU, said Meloni’s more combative stance is motivated by her rivalry with far-right leader and vice-premier Matteo Salvini, who espouses more radical Eurosceptic views. But the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House after US elections in November could also be encouraging Meloni to feel “an increase in her freedom of manoeuvre” with Brussels, Benassi said.
Meloni has played down the media freedom row. Earlier this week she said that “I don’t see any negative repercussions for Italy” and maintained that relations with the commission are not worsening.
Senator Claudio Borghi from Salvini’s League party, however, warned that discord will inevitably mount later this year when Italy will be found flouting EU budget rules.
With the looming conflict over Rome’s widening deficit, Borghi said Meloni could ill-afford to actively support a second term for the commission president.
“Voting for von der Leyen would have been a trap,” the League senator said, given that Meloni was not able to extract anything “substantial” from Brussels in return. Abstaining from the vote “has been a very smart move”, he said.
A public endorsement of von der Leyen would have been a “huge gift” to Salvini and the League, leaving Meloni vulnerable to criticism if Brussels comes down hard on Italy — especially if other big countries get a pass. “The real problem is on the economic side,” Borghi said. “We will see if there is a different treatment between us and France.”
One key and fast-approaching test of Meloni’s standing in Brussels will be her choice of EU commissioner, for which the government hopes to score a high-ranking economic portfolio. EU affairs minister Raffaele Fitto is tipped to be her nominee. A former MEP with the centre-right European People’s party of von der Leyen, Fitto is likely to sail through parliamentary hearings — though the scope of his portfolio is at the discretion of the commission president.
Lucio Malan, a senator in Meloni’s party, said he expects relations between Rome and Brussels to remain on an even keel, despite inevitable policy differences.
“The Italian government, through the voice of Giorgia Meloni, will be consistent with what we have done over the past two years, which is that we will state our points in a spirit of collaboration with the EU.”
Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at Rome’s Luiss University, said that by not supporting von der Leyen’s second term, Meloni had “made herself marginal and that was a mistake”.
But he played down prospects of a breakdown in ties saying, “it’s in no one’s interest to have a more confrontational relationship.”