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euronews | Italy's Giorgia Meloni throws her hat in the ring for EU elections (28.04.24)
Live from the Fratelli d'Italia programmatic conference in Pescara, the Italian prime minister announced her candidacy in the European elections next June. Giorgia Meloni is officially a candidate in the European elections next June. From the stage of the programmatic conference of her party, Brothers of Italy, in Pescara, the Prime Minister announced that she will run.
This article misrepresents Meloni's  electoral ambition @ 02:12:28 - 03:26:09.
synopsis: The next general election in Italy is 2027, barring a snap. Italian local elections will be held 8-9 June 2024 during EP elections. Meloni did not announce her candidacy for any EP seat. And the venue is too far removed from EP and College lobbies ("debate about who should be the president of the Commission before the vote is objectively surreal") to pad Selmyr's favor bank. However, Italy is hosting this summer's G7 bully pulpit. So with typical populist, nationalist, or patriotic pride (without mentioning names beginning with Mo) she positions Fratelli d'Italia's domestic achievements near the center of European political tradition; in fact, "center-right" lol. She emphasizes, "The European People's Party is finished" and the "Italian model" best represents Charles De Gaulle's imperative designs for the ECC. In her words, "'there can be no other Europe than that of national states.' Everything, the rest, is myth, speeches, superstructures. Today like yesterday, a Europe of strong nations that decide to get together in foreign politics and international defense of the external borders can really live up to building a strong Europe." Meloni is not a eurosceptic; to the contrary, she urges further integration of "L'Italia Cambia L'Europa" in the EP and Commission in order to "bring honesty into the institutions" in both Italy and the EU—class conflict (epitomized by peculiar comparisons of communists with -socialists, subsidarity with competition, immigration with exploitation, Albanians with Africans, family with feminism, Moscow with Brussels). Accordingly, euronews' report skims Meloni's voluminous litany of financial "scams" in Italy fostered by 'gods, bureaucrats, locked in a glass palace' in Brussels. In conclusion, Meloni rejects "federalism," quibbles over tactics, and prepares partisans to pack parliaments—high and low—with "Made in Italy" auteurs. She rehearsed the Brothers' stump speech.
by Cat on Mon Apr 29th, 2024 at 08:11:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
ECC s/b of course EEC

in re: candidacy
Meloni did not articulate any interest in European Council presidency. This slight is consistent with her aspiration, leading Italy's uhh renaissance until end of term 2027. Her purported devotion to direct democracy animates the conservative dialect that she speaks to party deputies. Besides, the Council president is appointed by European Council members. The Council rejected Charles Michel's resignation earlier this year and persuaded him to extend his term into July 2024, after EP elections. It's not obvious to me, who most likely will occupy the office when the new (or incumbent) Commission president distributes College portfolios. Meloni is an unlikely Council nominee for president in any case. I can't imagine, hostility toward far-right-authoritarian-antisemitic wings of the EPP subsiding so long as fear of EC infringement enthralls the states' MPs.

by Cat on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 at 12:19:00 AM EST
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Call me Ursula, 29 Apr #ProudGrandma
[...]
"People know her as Commission president," said URSULA2024 spox Alexander Winterstein. "What people may know less about is who she actually is as a person ... Who is Ursula von der Leyen?"

Statements on the campaign website are signed with von der Leyen's handwritten autograph and on the website, she states that "as a mother of seven, I want my children's children to grow in a safe, prosperous Europe."

Will this new image of von der Leyen be on display during Monday's Maastricht debate, the first debate between the lead candidates for the presidency of the European Commission?
[...]

aaand Mutti wept
by Cat on Wed May 1st, 2024 at 07:30:26 PM EST
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