Salvini brings together European sovereigntists and warns allies: “Dividing is a fatal mistake”

“It would be a fatal mistake to divide the center-right in Europe.” It is no coincidence that the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, chooses the meeting of European sovereignists in Florence to issue an almost definitive warning to his government allies. It is true that he is quick to point out that with Giorgia Meloni and Antonio Tajani the government is doing very well” and that “the stability of the center-right government”, which “will last five years and will reach 2027”, is not at stake, but the message is equally clear: «The League will never govern with communists and socialists» and «the center-right must choose between confusion with the socialists and the left and a center-right government». Words that sound good to the ears of those who arrived at Fortezza da Basso, in Florence, to “liberate Europe”: “Free Europe” is the title chosen for the event organized by the Identity and Democracy group at the European Parliament, while in the city they alternate four counter-demonstrations, three promoted by the Florentine Democratic Network and another signed by Firenze Antifascista. «Today there is the first party in France, Holland, Austria, Belgium, the second party in Germany and a party in the Italian government. We are not a black construction site, in fact there is a blue wave”, explains the leader of the League, before Marine Le Pen’s message is broadcast on stage: “Today the EU degrades our history” and the “European Commission acts against our peoples and our freedoms”, states the president of the Rassemblement National, noting that “for Von der Leyen, immigration is not a problem, it is a project”. The public applauds, Salvini listens, at his side the President of the Chamber, Lorenzo Fontana. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blesses X, writes that «The wind of change has arrived!».

This is followed by video interventions by the number one of the Portuguese far-right party Chega, André Ventura, and by Geert Wilders, new winner of the elections in the Netherlands with his PVV, Dutch Freedom Party. Speaking on stage are George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians party; Harald Vilimsky, leader of the Austrian FPO party; the leader of the Polish Crown Confederation, Roman Fritz; Tino Chrupalla, president of the far-right German party AfD; Jordan Bardella, president of Rassemblement National; the leader of the right-wing Bulgarian Renaissance party, Kostadin Kostadinov, for whom “today the European Union is a threat to Europe, and this is the bitter truth”. This is the meaning that all interventions have in common, in which they do not fail to raise criticism of European support for Ukraine and Israel. «Today there is no party alliance, there is a feeling of friendship. Identity and Democracy exist and will be decisive in Europe. It is very easy to ally ourselves only with those who win”, comments Salvini, according to whom “we are the David who is preparing to defeat Goliath, who in Europe is a bureaucratic, Masonic Goliath”, a “Soros Goliath of whom we are not afraid”. The latest controversy is with the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella: “I regret that a mayor who represents all the citizens of Florence allows himself to say who can visit Italian museums and who cannot. It was a lapse in style”, says the vice-president. Prime Minister referring to his private visit to the Uffizi Gallery. The response from the mayor, who is taking part in one of the four demonstrations organized in the city, comes quickly: «Florence is a great capital of democracy, of Europeanism» and «it doesn’t scare anyone away, but our city is incompatible with the values ​​of the ultra-right.” In the afternoon, around a thousand people, grouped under the flag of anti-fascist Florence, march peacefully through the streets of the city, balloons filled with colored paint are thrown at the closed headquarters of Fratelli d ‘Italia on Via della Scala. The demonstration ends in Piazza Indipendenza, chants against Salvini and Le Pen begin, flags are waved in support of Palestine. A large red banner hangs in front of the Fortezza da Basso with the words “Salvini and Le Pen, Florence disgusts you”.