The Italian Minister of Interior travelled to Warsaw to meet with his Polish counterpart, Joachim Brudziński, and the head of the ruling Law & Justice Party Jarosław Kaczyński. A meeting with the Polish Prime Minister Matuesz Morawiecki wasn’t initially on the schedule but took place anyway.
The Italian daily “La Republicca” was the first source to break the story that Salvini was heading to Poland for a meeting with the head of the Law and Justice Party regarding the prospect of forming an alliance in the European Parliament.
Salvini’s first meeting of the day was with the Polish Minister of Interior. During the joint press conference Minister Brudziński made it clear that the neither Lega nor the Law & Justice Party are planning for their country to leave the EU. However, they do have a different view on the future of the EU and they want their voices to be taken seriously.
“Poland and Italy aren’t leaving the EU. We form an integral part of the it and we want to have an influence on how our common European house will look like. To the people who would like to portray us as fringe, anti-European forces, we have only one thing to say: it’s mission impossible”. -Joachim Brudziński
Both ministers agreed that more migrant who have been rejected asylum need to be deported. Salvini spoke during the press conference talking about another subject that unites the two parties, namely traditional families.
“John Paul II talked about how Europe that needs to return to its true identity and its Judeo-Christian roots, and this is fiercly opposed by Brussels The institution of family is neglected while other values are allowed promoted” -Matteo Salvini
Salvini’s second meeting for the day was with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Salvini told the press that an Italian-Polish axis is needed to counter the German-Franco alliance dominating Europe. He continued by saying that Poland and Italy will work for a new e new European spring of Europe, which will lead to the the renaissance of European values, less dominance by the financial sector, less bureaucracy, more jobs, more focus on the family and most aboce all, better security for Europeans.
The final meeting of the day, between Salvini and the party leader of the Law & Justice Party, Jarosław Kaczyński. They didn’t want to reveal much about what had been discussed but it was hinted at that they two parties will be working on creating an alliance ahead of the European election in May. Kaczyński was invited to visit Salvini in Italy in March, presumely to finalize the agreement.
Interestingly, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who at the moment remains in a rival party group of the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, voiced his support for the new Polish-Italian initiative by saying that it will help to limit mass immigration to Europe. The Hungarian PM also stated that he hopes that the new alliance will help to build an anti-immigration majority in the European Parliament as well as in the European Commission.
Whether Orban himself is considering to join the Polish-Italian initiative remains unclear at the moment.
Much will depend on the way his party Fidesz is treated by the leadership of the EPP and the most likely new President of the European Commission, the current leader of the EPP Manfred Weber. One thing is clear, Lega and the Law and Justice Party will do everything they can to attract as many allies to their new EU party group. According to estimations by opinion polls, the two parties will be able to get as many as 60-65 MEPs elected to the European Parliament in May. Not far away from constituting 10 percent of the the total 751 MEPs sitting in the European Parliament. The current powers in Brussels will surely have to contend with a new force in European politics in 2019.