Several European leaders, including the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, they are trying to contact the Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni on the sidelines of the Brussels summit, but the Italian prime minister does not answer the phone, writes the website Political.
According to the European website, three EU officials revealed that Meloni “refuses to answer calls, leaving voicemail message”.
European sources stated that the six main negotiators from the three political groups – EPP, Social Democrats and Liberals – reached an agreement on the main EU leadership positions, but Meloni refuses to accept it, claiming an important position for Italy , as the third largest economy in the Union.
“The Italian woman’s refusal to sign or discuss the agreement raised fears among leaders that she would create a huge mess at today’s meeting,” Politico reports.
“The game of appointments – the so-called ‘top positions’ – will be played from this afternoon until tomorrow”, writes Corriere della Sera, adding that “few are betting on Meloni’s green light for appointments to the main EU positions”. .
Meloni could abstain, as Angela Merkel did five years ago, expressing her opposition to Ursula von der Leyen’s choice, but she could also vote against it, as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Britain’s David Cameron did in 2014, when Jean -Claude Juncker was nominated.
Meloni could also ask for a vote for each seat separately and thus reach a different decision: favoring Ursula von der Leyen as president, but not Antonio Costa and Kaya Callas for the positions of President of the Council and Head of Foreign Policy, respectively. “If Meloni decides to break them, he will try to have other states on his side that support his disagreement,” notes La Repubblica.
Meloni is promoting Raffaele Fito, Italy’s current Minister of European Affairs, to the position of “High Commissioner”.
