Axis Rome – Prague – Warsaw. Fiala wants to coordinate with the new Italian government in the EU
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala hopes for coordination at the EU level with the new Italian government, led by the leader of the Brothers of Italy party Giorgia Meloniová, and with the Polish cabinet of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecký. He said this in an interview published by the Italian newspaper La Stampa. The prime ministers who lead the Italian, Czech and Polish governments are members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party, which is chaired by Meloni. Fiala told the newspaper that he last met the Italian politician in the European Parliament and had a good feeling about the discussions with her.
“We need to create a format to coordinate our positions and our actions,” Fiala said in an interview. He expects a good level of coordination to be established between the three governments. The Czech prime minister hopes that the prime ministers from the ECR will coordinate in the same way as the heads of government from other larger EU parties, for example the People’s Party or the Socialists, do.
The Italian politician is the chairwoman of the ECR, in which the Czech ODS or the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) are also members. After Meloni’s appointment as head of the Italian government, the ECR will have three prime ministers at the EU table, who represent countries with a total of 110 million inhabitants.
Fiala last spoke to Meloni about three to four months ago in Strasbourg. “We talked about European politics, the Italian attitude towards Europe and its opinion about the European Union,” said Fiala, who was “very satisfied” with the interview. According to him, the arrival of the Brothers of Italy in the government could increase the EU’s support for Ukraine.
Fiala also took part in negotiations at the EU summit, which he held this week in Brussels. He stated that the goal of the Czech presidency is to reach an agreement on a specific type of energy measures during November.
The politician, whose party won the September elections, accepted the mandate from the president on Friday and, contrary to custom, immediately presented the list of ministers. The government was formed by the parties of the right-wing bloc, which has a comfortable majority in parliament. The cabinet will have 24 members in addition to the prime minister. The new government will meet for the first time on Sunday at noon and, according to next week, a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Nine ministers from Meloni’s party, five ministers from the Up, Italy (FI) party of four-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and another five ministers from the Liga (L) party, including six women, took the oath. Five ministers are non-political experts. Meloni’s six-year-old daughter Ginevra watched the ceremony in the Quirinale Palace, accompanied by the partner of the 45-year-old politician, TV journalist Andrea Giambruno.
Meloni, who became the first woman to head the Italian cabinet and the first leader of a far-right party to govern the country, is also the third youngest head of government in the history of Italy’s republican establishment. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has already congratulated her. The new government is the 68th since the establishment of the republic in 1946.