Macron told The Economist that Meloni had a “European approach” and noting that she had “supported the asylum and migration pact”.
Of the other nationalist parties, Macron said, “they’re all pro-Brexit in disguise” and were trying to “take Europe hostage with the same false discourse”.
Meloni is chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which includes Spain’s Vox, Poland’s Law and Justice, Eric Zemmour’s French Reconquete (Reconquest), the Sweden Democrats, and the Finns Party, a group which is led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and is soon set to see the arrival of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz too.
The ECR was founded by former British Prime Minister, now foreign minister, David Cameron in 2014.
The Tories left the group after Brexit in 2016.
Meloni has followed a domestic nationalist agenda but has cleaved to pro-EU and pro-NATO lines, especially regarding the war in Ukraine.
ANSA
