However, the euroskeptics in Budapest or Bratislava don’t have the clout to hollow out the EU on their own. But if joined by founding members like Italy, and perhaps The Netherlands, their promise — or threat — of turning the bloc into a “Europe of nations” becomes ever more possible. Plus, for the right-wing populists determined to cut the EU off at its knees, the surge of National Rally seats in the French parliament and the recent triumph of left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the country’s snap elections aren’t such a setback either — they can rely on him to harry Brussels as well.
Given all this, as well as the prospect of Trump’s reelection, Meloni’s mask is starting to slip. Just think of how Rome stood against Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied weapons on Russian soil, its supposed insistence on diluting language on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights at the G7 summit in Apulia, or its refusal to ratify the European stability mechanism.
Moreover, Meloni’s abstention on von der Leyen’s reappointment as Commission president, as well as her vote against former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa as European Council president and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative, are signs she hasn’t been house-trained at all. Rather, she’s starting to feel emboldened.
In the same vein, upon Meloni’s instruction, her Brothers of Italy party voted against von der Leyen’s reelection in the European Parliament last Thursday. And if Trump is reelected in November, the remaining constraints and feints will fade. Meloni was on her best behavior before, but now she’s starting to switch tactics in anticipation of Europe’s “new right” gathering pace and the return of a fellow predator in Washington.
Overall, there’s much that divides Europe’s new right parties, but banking on these differences and trying to exploit them in order to protect the European project is risky. So, rather than distinguishing between the moderate and radical hard right, it may well be more useful — and certainly wiser — to distinguish between those among them that are incremental in their approach, like Meloni, and those that are hasty. For it is precisely because the tactics of the former are smarter that they could be far more dangerous.
