Raffaele Fitto’s road to obtain an executive vice-presidency of the European Commission is becoming increasingly uphill, one of the objectives of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who has claimed it several times. After the Liberals, who had already expressed their doubts about the possibility, it is now the Socialists who are closing the door to the hypothesis, putting what seems like a tombstone on the ambitions of the Italian government.
“Proactively bringing the ECR into the heart of the Commission would be a recipe for losing the support of progressives,” said the president of the Socialists & Democrats, Iratxe García, bluntly in a tough note in which the group sets its stakes for granting confidence to the new community executive. Ursula von der Leyen was due to present her team tomorrow at the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, the body that brings together the president of the Chamber, Roberta Metsola, and the leaders of the different groups.
The negotiations
But at the last second the presentation was postponed to next week, when the Plenary will be held in Strasbourg. The official reason is that the Slovenian government informed the Commission that on Friday the Parliament in Ljubljana will express its opinion on the candidate proposed for the post of national commissioner and that only after this phase the nomination will be complete and official.
In fact, von der Leyen is trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and satisfy the capitals on the one hand, trying as much as possible to listen to their wishes, and on the other the European Parliament, whose vote of confidence is essential for the executive to take office. Meloni insists that Italy, as a large founding country, has the right to a weighty role, such as that of executive vice president, for Fitto, our candidate. But Meloni abstained in the European Council in the vote on the nomination of von der Leyen for a second term and Fratelli d’Italia voted against the confidence in the Chamber.
Split majority
Now two forces in the majority supporting the Commission, the Socialists and the Liberals, have publicly spoken out against granting a prestigious role to a representative of the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, while the People’s Party has not expressed any objections, with Forza Italia pushing for support for its name.
. “Minister Fitto has a great deal of experience at the European level, Italy is one of the founding countries as well as the second European manufacturing industry. Therefore, we expect his name to be taken into consideration for the right delegations and an operational vice-presidency”, said Forza Italia MEP Letizia Moratti during a press briefing at the European Parliament.
The Liberals’ No
“I hope the rumors are not true,” said last week Frenchwoman Valérie Hayer, president of the liberal group of the Community Assembly, referring to the executive vice-presidency for Fitto. “This would mean that Ursula von der Leyen would put among the heavyweights of the European Commission a far-right commissioner who, among other things, did not support her,” she added, calling it “incomprehensible” and also “unacceptable”.
It is unlikely that von der Leyen will force her hand and displease two forces whose support she will need during the legislature. It would be much easier for her to displease only Meloni, with our country that could have to settle for a weighty commissionership or in any case a vice-presidency but not executive, which could be a compromise to try to save both the goat and the cabbage.
