It’s a moment of television that hasn’t aged well. The tall stature of Marine Le Pen, black boots and a long woolen coat, dominates the presenter and a petite woman in a sweater and red heels. On January 20, 2015, the president of the National Front (FN) is the guest of honor on the Italian political talk show “Dimartedi”. “What do you think of these young people from the Italian right? »asks the journalist, pointing to Giorgia Meloni. “They broke a number of taboos, replies Marine Le Pen. It’s a proof of courage (…) in a single current of thought. They deserve respect and encouragement.”she greets, as a teacher would of his most promising students.
That day, Giorgia Meloni published three blurred photos on her Facebook profile showing her in the company of the leader of the National Front, and was pleased to have reached 200,000 “likes” on the social network. His party, Fratelli d’Italia (FI, “Brothers of Italy”), is 2 years old and, with less than 4% in the 2014 European elections, has just failed to send deputies to Strasbourg. The FN, in the same ballot, came first in an election in France for the first time. Giorgia Meloni reports on each of her frequent meetings with Marine Le Pen, and says she shares her political vision which would no longer oppose right and left, but ” up and down “. The “third world war” sera ” economic “she fears, “between the needs and rights of people and the interests of the oligarchy”. Almost Le Pen in the text.
Seven years later, Giorgia Meloni has 2.3 million admirers on Facebook, is perhaps about to become president of the board and no longer meets Marine Le Pen. If Fratelli d’Italia wins the general elections on September 25, no meeting is planned in the short term between the two leaders. Their last public interview dates back to 2016. The following year, Mme Meloni had called to vote for her eldest in the presidential election; not in 2022. “No second-round candidate represents the conservative camp of which I am a part”she had said.
Unofficial channels
The distancing is muted but indisputable. Did Marine Le Pen’s choice to form an alliance with the leader of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, during the 2014 European elections, encouraged by friendly relations and great political similarities, irritate Giorgia Meloni? Allied by electoral pragmatism, Mme Meloni and Mr. Salvini hardly like each other and are opposed on several points.
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