Throughout her campaign, the Italian Giorgia Meloni castigated, criticized and even sometimes insulted Emmanuel Macron. Yet behind the scenes, in recent weeks, members of his Fratelli D’Italia party have tried to make contact with Macronist parliamentarians.
According to information from franceinfo, these exchanges were purely informal to test the waters. It was not a question of proposing to work together, but rather of testing networks capable of passing messages to the Elysée. Simple attempts at parallel diplomacy which, for the time being, do not work…”Too premature“, confides a personality contacted.
VSthose who know the Italian institutions well remain cautious, we have to wait for the official announcement of a government. Negotiations are underway in Rome, but the beauty of Italian coalitions is that forming a government can sometimes take weeks.
This is why officially, there is currently no contact between the Elysée and the teams of Giorgia Meloni. If she is finally appointed President of the Italian Council, “the institutional and diplomatic process will be put in place… with pragmatism”, tempers an adviser to Emmanuel Macron. Moreover, pragmatism always, for the time being, the Elysée simply split a pithy press release to the announcement of the results.
Reconciliation with “Reconquête” in Brussels
But Giorgia Meloni already has relays in France. If she has had no contact with Marine Le Pen for years, she is actually closer to an Eric Zemmour, with whom she shares liberal, identity and conservative convictions. Meloni and Zemmour have never met, but the Italian has fairly regular contact with Marion Maréchal. The former FN MP is married to Italian Vincenzo Sofo, MEP member of Fratelli d’Italia. Inevitably, it creates links…
It is finally in Brussels that links could be strengthened between the teams of Giorgia Meloni and the French far right. The project at Reconquête is simple: if, in 2024, Eric Zemmour’s party obtains MEPs, they could sit with Fratelli d’Italia in the ECR group of European conservatives, rather than in the ID group where MEPs meet. of the National Rally. We are here at the very beginning of a new political page between Italy and France. We also understand the caution on the side of the Elysée and Macronie: no reason to build bridges with teams that will not be really allies anyway.