The exclusion of sovereignists and ultranationalists from the control rooms of the Eurochamber has not been taken very well by the ranks of the League. The sanitary cordon erected by the forces of the centrist and pro-European majority is still in place and has prevented exponents of the extreme right, including the Patriots (the Carroccio group in Strasbourg), from obtaining important positions in parliamentary commissions.
Today (Tuesday 23 July) the twenty commissions and four subcommittees elected their secretariats, each composed of a president and up to four vice-presidents. But, as widely expected, none of these seats were left to the two radical right groups, namely the Patriots (PFE) and the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN).
Majority and opposition
Paolo Borchia’s hot comment leaves no doubt about the mood of the Northern League patrol: the head of delegation called it “an attack on democracy” and “a useless attitude, like that of suburban bullies”. An “institutional abomination” against which the Northern League promises to fight, claiming the fact that “the cordon implemented in the previous legislature did not prevent us from blocking the Euro-follies of this majority and made us grow even more at the polls”.
“Denying positions that belong to the Patriots group”, reads a note from the League, “which also serve as roles of guarantee for the correct functioning of the Parliament system, is a shameful gesture that defines all the political pettiness of forces that insult not only elected representatives, but above all the free and democratic vote of millions of European citizens”.
As for the positions obtained by the parties that support Ursula von der Leyen’s majority (People’s Party, Socialists and Liberals, with the external support of the Greens), Borchia declared: “They should keep their vice-presidencies, we’ll keep our dignity”. “With a group that expresses 12% of the votes in this Parliament – Borchia reiterated – I want to see how they will be able, when they need it, to ask for our support”, complaining that the People’s Party of the EPP is playing along with “the left” when the new hemicycle in Strasbourg is “clearly centre-right”. In the next legislature, he added, the Patriots “will have to be the counterweight to the Greens” to safeguard the economy and the sustainability of businesses, which “need regulatory frameworks that are precise, not oscillating and not ideologized”.
The Vannacci Case
But in the Patriots themselves it would seem that not all are in agreement with the Lega line, starting with the opportunity to be represented by the leading MEP (and champion of preferences) Roberto Vannacci. After the election of the former Folgore as vice-president of the group last July 8, in fact, from National Rally by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella the doubts about the figure of the general have become increasingly insistent, whose nomination now seems to be in the balance. For the moment, officially, he is still in his position: theaffair Vannacci is “fixable” in the words of Borchia, who did not want to provide further explanations to journalists.
Other members of the Patriots reiterated that “the solution to the Vannacci problem” (these are the words used at the time by the head of the RN delegation, Jean-Paul Garraud) must be found within the Lega. Dirty laundry is washed in the family, in short. And in the meantime, the tenth legislature risks starting with an image mess that is not very dignified for what was supposed to be the great nationalist international.
