There are those who can read it as a spite from Macronsince its commissioner Breton, he’s the one who pulls the strings. It is in fact the EU’s general directorate for growth, which has its political head in the French commissioner, which yesterday sent its emissaries to Rome, for a comparison with the Italian government on all infringement procedures opened by the EU against our country.
The meetings took place with officials of the Department for European Affairs, which reports to Minister Raffaele Fitto, and also included the long-standing, and never resolved by Rome, infringement procedure on the market of beach concessions, an issue that neither the Draghi government nor, it seems, the Meloni government have had the strength and/or the desire to resolve once and for all.
What can also be read as a political move, or also linked to the ongoing European game on nominations and the Commission, in any case also has bureaucratic characteristics. In fact, they are usually meetings that occur several times a year, scheduled months in advance. The fact that it was decided to do it immediately after the vote and after the European Council at the end of the month may still appear to be a deliberate coincidence.
Tensions in the majority
The pressure from European institutions on the Italian government, which undoubtedly has a history of infringements of European law that is not very recommendable, must also be accompanied by a fact: Meloni has inherited 62 infringements for violation of EU law (the most serious, then there are those for failure to implement), today they have dropped to 48 proceedings. In almost two years, therefore, the Italian government has improved its position significantly, at least on one front.
On the beach resorts, however, tension is also felt within the majority: yesterday the stop came to a amendment presented by the League to limit the effects of the Bolkestein directive. It had already been shelved, but Salvini’s party reintroduced it, even if it did not reach the vote because it was deemed “unproposable”.
Meloni: «No to those nostalgic for fascism»
There are also the following to be recorded: first in-depth contacts on the Italian commissioner and on the possible future European Commission. In fact, constant discussions are underway between von der Leyen’s cabinet and Palazzo Chigito reach a non-formal but unofficial point of arrival: spendable after July 18, if the Strasbourg Parliament has given its green light to the German exponent’s encore.
Yesterday, in her letter to the leaders of her party, where she reiterated that there is no room for those nostalgic for fascism, Meloni touched on other current issues, including European ones: “We are concrete evidence that the conservative right can govern well in its homeland and at the same time strengthen the framework of international alliances and attract large investors. We are proof that the narrative of the major media and biased observers was false, that there is a credible alternative to the European and Western social democratic swamp”.
And it also claims a sort of copyright politicodespite Orbán and Salvini’s party planning to form a European political group called I Patrioti: «In 2017 we established that Fratelli d’Italia would not only be the party of the Italian right, but also of Italian patriots. Of all patriotsregardless of their political origins. The truth is that we have set the course, forcing all political forces to define themselves, little by little, as “patriotic”.
