Turning right: Italy’s political landscape and EU elections

In October 2022, a coalition formed by Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (the leading party), Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia won the Italian national elections, taking over from a grand coalition government led by Mario Draghi. While Forza Italia, currently led by former EU Commissioner and former President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, is part of the European People’s Party (EPP) and an active member of the pro-European conservatives, Lega belongs to the extreme right and Eurosceptic group Identity and Democracy (ID), together with the French Rassemblement National (RN) and the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Giorgia Meloni is the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), who are inspired by liberal conservatism, advocate nationalist Euroscepticism and are antifederalist. However, since coming to power in Italy, she has chosen a more pragmatic and cooperative attitude towards the European Union (EU) institutions and promoted a rapprochement with the EPP, in particular by building a special relationship with the current commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola. [...]