Meloni strengthens majorities, in Italy and the EU
In the long electoral race towards the European elections this week, politics has been “overshadowed” at least in terms of media coverage, by the so-called “turnaround” of Meloni towards Von der Leyen, although, to be honest, the premier’s statements did not seem so much like a rupture as the representation of something quite obvious. Let’s rewind for a moment. During the week, Giorgia Meloni, in an interview with Bruno Vespa, explained: “I built a collaboration with Von der Leyen because it was necessary to do so. Elections, however, are another matter.” Who could blame her? It would have been questionable if, on the contrary, to make political opposition, the Prime Minister of one of the key states of the EU had built a conflicting and discontinuous relationship with her European counterpart. It is obvious that Meloni is also doing internal politics and knows well that these elections are crucial for the stability of her majority. That’s why she also specified: “The goal is to bring the Italian model to Europe with a center-right majority with conservatives at the center, who can be the swing vote, the President of the Commission comes afterwards,” she reiterated, reminding her coalition that “the only thing not to do is to divide us among ourselves, because that way we do a favor to the left.” And she knows this well, that’s why she shielded Salvini and Santanché from the parliamentary attack by the opposition, who put their respective motions of no confidence to a vote this week (Salvini’s for the “United Russia” report and Santanché’s related to the judicial investigation). The vote in the Chamber tested the majority: 211 no, 129 yes, and 3 abstentions for Salvini; 213 no, 121 yes, and 3 abstentions for Santanché.
On the foreign front, however, Easter did not mitigate the aggressiveness of the conflict in the Middle East. Despite the heartfelt appeals of the Pope for a ceasefire, clashes continued, and the humanitarian emergency has become urgent again, to the point that on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held responsible for any war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip. Twenty-eight countries voted in favor, while 13 abstained, and six voted against the resolution. The United States welcomed Israel’s recent commitments to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, but he also emphasized that their success will be measured by the results achieved in trying to improve the situation on the ground. And the numbers don’t look promising, considering that just in the last few hours (data collected on Friday morning) 54 Palestinians were killed, and 82 were injured. Moreover, the killing of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) operators in the Gaza Strip by Israel has generated much controversy regarding the behavior of the Israeli army, which admitted responsibility for the attack but claimed it was provoked by a “lack of coordination” with the NGO. Even Joe Biden distanced himself from Netanyahu, describing the attacks on humanitarian workers and the situation of the civilian population in the Strip as “unacceptable”: “U.S. policy towards Gaza will be determined by an assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps” concluded.
