(CN) — The European Union's opaque system for choosing who gets the bloc's top jobs following bloc-wide European Parliament elections is turning nasty this year as the traditional centrist forces seek to keep a surging far right out of the backroom talks.
On Wednesday, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blasted the EU's main political groups for divvying up the top positions among themselves and excluding Europe's radical-right parties.
Speaking to the Italian parliament, Meloni expressed anger at the secretive system for picking leaders of EU institutions. Her criticism was particularly poignant because far-right parties like her Brothers of Italy did very well in European Parliament elections earlier this month and secured about a quarter of the chamber's seats.
Meloni was touted as a potential kingmaker in EU affairs following the elections, but it appears the centrists may seek to sideline her, opening up the possibility she may turn more combative and disruptive.
She accused the other political groups of seeking to disregard the results of European elections by excluding her hard-right parliamentary group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, from leadership talks.
“There are those who argue that citizens are not wise enough to take certain decisions and that oligarchy is the only acceptable form of democracy, but I disagree,” Meloni said, breaking with her reputation since becoming prime minister as mellowing her anti-EU rhetoric.
She slammed EU leaders for seeking to “sweep the dust under the carpet” rather than recognize the dissatisfaction voters expressed in the elections. She called the EU “an invasive bureaucratic giant.”
Her comments came a day the EU's traditional three mainstream political families — the center-right European People's Party, the center-left Socialists and Democrats and the liberals under Renew — said they'd agreed on who they wanted for the top jobs.
Their preferred candidates were not a surprise and in many ways would represent a continuation of EU policymaking, despite election results that showed clear frustration with Brussels.
The three groups said they agreed to keep Ursula von der Leyen as the president of the European Commission, the bloc's chief executive. She is a member of the European People's Party, the group that obtained the most seats in the European elections. As the winner, the party is expected to be rewarded with the most important EU job.
Under the agreement, the Socialists and Democrats would be rewarded with the second-most important job, the presidency of the European Council. They said that job should go to António Costa, the former Socialist prime minister of Portugal. The European Council is made up of the bloc's national leaders and drives EU policy decisions.
Renew, meanwhile, is expected to get its choice — Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas — to serve as the EU's top foreign diplomat. The liberals came in fourth in the elections behind Meloni's hard-right group.
But individually, von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas are problematic.
Although von der Leyen is widely seen as an able and strong EU chief executive, she has been criticized for staking out political positions without the consent of the EU's national leaders.
For example, she pledged full support to Israel shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, even though some EU leaders, such as Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, wanted the bloc to take a more cautious approach. She also faces criticism for not divulging details about private talks over vaccine contracts she had with Pfizer during the coronavirus pandemic.
Costa meanwhile may be lifted to the EU's second-most high-profile position even though he faces corruption allegations in Portugal. He resigned last November after police raided his official residence amid a wide-scale corruption probe into lithium mining and green hydrogen energy projects.
Kallas is an outspoken hawk on Russia and said the EU must ensure Russia's defeat in Ukraine by giving Kyiv all the weapons it needs to win. But at home, opinion polls show support for Kallas has fallen sharply — and her husband was accused of maintaining business ties with Russia even after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On Thursday and Friday, the EU's 27 national leaders are set to meet for a regular summit and name who they want for the bloc's most important jobs. Their picks will then need to be approved by the European Parliament.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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