European Parliament, the Letta-Di Maio couple is also a failure in Brussels

The Letta-Di Maio couple were protagonists, unfortunately for them in a negative sense, of the summer election campaign a year ago. Today they have reinvented themselves in Europe thanks to their precious political connections. Enrico Letta, by resigning as secretary of the Democratic Party, leaving command to Elly Schlein, obtained an exceptional mission from the European Commission, in accordance with the previous Spanish rotating presidency of the Union: he must draw up a plan to relaunch the single market. Former Grillino Luigi Di Maio, also defeated in the September 25, 2022 elections, despite having managed to be listed by the Democratic Party, has an even more prestigious mission: strengthening relations between Europe and Arab countries thanks to his mandate as envoy to the Persian Gulf. For both of them, however, things don’t seem to be going well. Letta is despised by European parliamentarians who should be eager to hear about his revolution in the European economic space. Di Maio is even kept hidden. The first meeting at which he was supposed to report the results of his work took place behind closed doors. Don’t listen to that. It is impossible to know the objectives achieved in the first five months of work. Let’s start with the former Democratic leader. Yesterday morning, at 9am, he appeared, as scheduled, at the Industry, Research and Energy committee. A very large classroom, with more than 200 seats. Only four of the 78 MEPs came to hear him to question him about the progress of his work. They were the Italians Elena Lizzi (Lega) and Patrizia Toia (Pd), the Czech Martina Dlabajovà (Renew) and the Finnish Mauri Pekkarinen (Renew). At first glance, the classroom seems deserted, although you can see some other brave people who chose not to miss it, as staff, advisors, assistants and the public, as well as MEPs from other committees, can also attend. “I’m looking for the magic formula to relaunch the European single market,” said Letta last July, in an interview with Le Soir. The “high-level report” he is working on should be ready in March 2024, before the next European elections. Letta is not the only Italian mind called upon to outline the future of Europe. Just over a month ago, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asked for help from another former prime minister: Mario Draghi, to whom she entrusted the task of drawing up a report on competitiveness in the Union.

Returning to Di Maio, who during the Draghi government managed to establish a close relationship with his mentor, the High Representative for European Foreign Policy Josep Borrell, it is necessary to tell what happened in the Foreign Affairs Committee three days ago, Tuesday, October 24th. The format of the meeting was very different from that of Letta. Strictly behind closed doors. “In the room”, as they say in the jargon. The agenda was also vague: “Exchange of views”, an exchange of views with the EU special representative in the Gulf. However, an important appointment, being the first time that Di Maio was called to account for his actions. For him too, participation ended up being a failure. It appears that only five MEPs were present. Unlike the former secretary of the Democratic Party, there is no recording or shorthand account of the meeting. No transparency. Who knows what he answered to the questions of Anna Cinzia Bonfrisco, member of the Northern League, one of the few ladies present, who has long claimed to know what “guarantee of impartiality” the former head of M5S can provide in this role. The only first-hand information you can find about Di Maio’s new work are his tweets. Concise and polished, but always accompanied by photos with handshakes and big smiles. The last “twitter” is from yesterday: we see him alongside Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi and Abdel al Jubeir, respectively Ministers of Commerce and Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia. “There is much to do together to achieve our shared transformation ambitions”, says the phrase that accompanies the tweet. Di Maio really changed his life, the Italian controversies are now very far away. We don’t know if you read Giuseppe Conte’s statements about him yesterday: «I lost sight of him. What happened is public: we had an M5S minister, a former leader, a fundamental reference for our Movement, who at a certain point was intoxicated by Draghi’s agenda and the entire establishment. He started to think in a completely different way, even though he was Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed by us, he decided to make a split, he went on television and started speaking against the Movement, he said false things to all the news: that we wanted to leave NATO, that we were a threat to Italian and European security. Think about how happy we were to hear from you. And then he was nominated by the Democratic Party.”