Meloni grooms EU on defence, Ecr looks to majority Giorgia

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said during her speech at the conclusion of the Italian right-wing Atreju event, “Trump has said most emphatically that the US intends to disengage and Europeans must organise to defend themselves: hello Europe. For eighty years we outsourced our security to the US pretending it was free, but there was a price to pay and that price is called conditioning. Freedom has a price,’.

Meloni’s remarks come after recent tensions between the European Union and the US administration, following Donald Trump’s attacks.

The Fratelli d’Italia’s annual political event, founded in 1998 by Giorgia Meloni and her youth organisation, now serves as a high-level forum for national and international political debates. Its name comes from Atreju, the young warrior from the 1980s film The NeverEnding Story, chosen to symbolise youth engagement and the defence of ideals.

The event concluded with a renewed agreement among government allies ahead of the 2027 general elections and strong support from European conservatives for the Italian premier, who hope for a ‘Meloni’ majority in the European Parliament.

Meloni said from the stage set up in the gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, where the party also organised a Christmas market with handicrafts, “We have spoken in unsuspected times of the need to strengthen our defence and security capacity and claimed when no one else did the need to finally create a European NATO norm of equal strength and respect to the American one able to speak with all the powers of the world as befits a glorious civilisation such as the European one, which also means strengthening the dialogue with the United States but in a dialogue between equals and not in conditions of subalternity,”.

Meloni then attacked the opposition and trade unions, claiming the government’s achievements. “They speak badly of Atreju and it is the best edition ever, they speak badly of the government and the government rises in the polls,” she said, adding: “I am proud of my allies and what we are doing together. I am convinced that we will continue to do so with the same unity, with the same determination and with the same strength for a long time to come.”

Meloni continued on by saying, “The EU is working on a Safe Countries Regulation to shield our decisions from politicised judiciary rulings. It amuses me to imagine what the judges will say since the EU is approving a list where there are exactly the countries from where the migrants that their ideological judgments have blocked come from: it is going exactly as I have always told you, the centres in Albania will work thanks to the judges with a year and a half delay,”.

She added, “Europe is not in its twilight, it is a living civilisation that still has a mission and that does not ask for existence even from the institutions that govern it.”

Majority parties present a united front for 2027 elections

Before the Italian premier, government allies and deputy prime ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, together with Maurizio Lupi, took the stage, asserting the strength of their alliance and promising victory in the 2027 elections.

Tajani said, “We must have the courage to defend the political Europe that is not that of bureaucracy. I believe that the EPP and Conservatives must increasingly work together to fight to protect our industrial and agricultural identity,”. He added, “I hope that finally, thanks to the commitment of the entire Italian centre-right, we can cancel the obscenity of the non-electric car ban, it is about to end.”

The Forza Italia leader also noted that Italy is the only EU country to have had the same foreign minister and prime minister since the beginning of the legislature.

Matteo Salvini used the Atreju stage to attack the opposition and trade unions, highlighting the government’s achievements. He pledged to start work on the bridge over the Strait of Messina. “The country cannot be united if the whole of Italy is not united: I give you my word that I will do everything to start these blessed construction sites for the bridge over the Strait of Messina, the seaweed, bats and pigeons will not stop us,” he said, adding that for the League, Charlie Kirk and Oriana Fallaci are examples to follow, not Francesca Albanese and Roberto Saviano.

Meanwhile Lupi reaffirmed the alliance between the governing parties., “We have already won a bet, that of restoring dignity to politics and parties. We will win another bet, that of governing the centre-right coalition for 10 years,”.

ECR pushes for a ‘Giorgia majority’

The event, which started the previous weekend, also welcomed international guests. On Sunday, among the most anticipated was Mateusz Morawiecki, former Polish premier and president of the Conservatives and Reformists of Europe (ECR) group, of which Fratelli d’Italia is a member. “Europe is going through a hell of cultural decay, with shame instead of pride,” Morawiecki said.

“Europe can be more than a spectator, it can be one of the protagonists in the new global order,” he added. “I propose a free trade zone between the US and the EU, in a formidable alliance that would prevent other countries from imposing their will. Europe must change from within, with countries being able to choose different priorities, because it makes no sense to force everyone to the same solutions,” he concluded, before inviting Meloni on stage for a selfie.

From Rome, the European Conservatives pushed to overcome the ‘von der Leyen’ majority by proposing the ‘Meloni’ alternative, strengthening the alliance between the EPP and ECR. During a panel dedicated to the ECR, group vice-president George Simion said on Friday that “the future belongs to the patriots.”

“The world would not exist without conservatives,” he added, praising the ‘Giorgia Meloni’ model. “We must fight for our right to exist and for common sense, they will continue to speak the truth and seek power in all 27 countries of the European Union.”

ECR Vice-President and leader of Identité-Libertés, Marion Maréchal, criticised the current structure of the EU and highlighted a shift in Brussels, “Today we have managed to build an alternative majority in the European Parliament, which we can call ‘Giorgia’, an alternative to the Ursula majority.”

Nicola Procaccini, ECR group co-chair and FdI environment department head, said on Friday, “The conservatives in Europe are making their case, they have started to be more influential than ever, to build a centre-right majority. These days we have been working on our priorities, which are: relaunching economic competitiveness, relaunching security and the fight against illegal immigration, and reinforcing the constituent values of the EU, namely its Christian roots and cultural references.”

Opposition leaders and Abbas present at Atreju

Atreju also welcomed figures from outside the Fratelli d’Italia alliances, including 5 Star Movement president Giuseppe Conte, Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi, Action secretary Carlo Calenda, and Green Party deputy Angelo Bonelli. Absent was Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein, who declined in recent weeks the three-way confrontation proposed by Meloni with Conte.

Guest of honour on Friday was Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. “We hope that Italy can continue along the path of recognition of the Palestinian state, which would strengthen the foundations of peace in the region and trust between peoples, the concept of equality. We hold in high regard the Italian posture, even at the popular level, which has always expressed great solidarity with what our people have suffered in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said from the stage at Atreju. He had met Meloni earlier at Palazzo Chigi for an official visit.

Speaking from the stage on Sunday, Meloni thanked Abbas again, “Let me thank Palestine’s President Abu Mazen again for his courageous testimony, his beautiful presence here in Atreju that does justice to the shameful accusations of complicity in genocide that an embarrassing left wing has been directing at us for months.”