MADRID — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni backed Spain’s far-right Vox party on Thursday night, telling its hard-liners that their success in Spain’s July 23 elections would usher in “a change in the politics of Europe.”
“It is crucial that a conservative, patriotic alternative be established,” Meloni said during a televised appearance at a Vox rally in Valencia. “Europe needs to become aware of its role and influence again to be a political giant instead of a bureaucratic one.”
The Italian prime minister spoke at length about her government’s achievements and said that while many had tried to “isolate” her, she had strengthened her country’s position in Europe by firmly backing Ukraine and pitching Italy as an alternative gas hub amid the bloc’s energy crisis. “Now we are preparing to chair the G7 in 2024,” she added.
Meloni also trumpeted her country’s tough migration policies, which have ultimately served as a blueprint for the EU’s own migration pact. “The model of open borders and massive immigration that has been told to us is a fairy tale,” she said. “We cannot think of welcoming all the economic migrants that come to our shores: They must be repatriated.”
Spain’s center-right Popular Party is projected to score the most votes in the upcoming elections but fall short of securing a governing majority. Vox is the most likely party to be tapped to serve as a coalition partner, ushering in what could be Spain’s first government with far-right members in 50 years.
The Italian prime minister has been a longtime Vox supporter and has delivered speeches at several of the far-right party’s rallies; last year she traveled to Marbella to personally urge right-wingers to join her in fighting “the LGBTQ lobby,” “gender-based ideology” and “Brussels bureaucrats.”
This time around Meloni told Vox supporters to confide in voters “who are much smarter than some think,” and went on to list Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary as countries where similarly minded parties are in power.
“The hour of the patriots has arrived,” she concluded.
