from Russia Insider:

Italy’s ethno-populist party Fratelli d’Italia is the latest to join the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE). The aim of the growing political alliance is to form a lobby powerful enough to decimate the globalist liberal-left following the May elections.

The aim of Fratelli d’Italia is also to convince the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) to ditch its coalition with the EU parliament’s socialists and liberals and reform to join the upcoming anti-globalist alliance.

Giorgia Meloni

Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) made its official debut as a new party in the European conservative family on February 22 at the ACRE congress in Rome. It expressed its intention to join the European Conservative and Reformist parliamentary group in the Parliament’s next legislature.

ACRE President and ECR’s spitzenkandidat Jan Zahradil welcomed FDI into the conservative family, saying that it is an ideal partner and that electoral success will give the ECR the strength to change the EU and give greater power to the member states.

Polish MEP Ryszard Legutko, co-chairman of the parliamentary group, said that FDI is moving positively towards the future, stressing the need for a return to common sense in Brussels and for a European Union that does less, but better.

FDI political leader Giorgia Meloni says, “We will work with all the conservative groups to bridge the divide between the EPP centre-right parties and the populists, thereby relegating the left and Macron to the side-lines of European politics.”

During Friday’s event in Rome, Meloni said that conservatives could help out to overcome the “nefarious pact” between Christian Democrats and socialists thanks to a broad right-wing alliance covering the Europe People’s Party and populists. Meloni also added that, in the event of a rift between EPP and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, “we would embrace him full arms, ECR is Fidesz’ ideal home.”

In past declarations, Meloni said she considered Orbán as a model for Italy’s right-wing, saying he “serves the interests of its people, defends the Christian identity of Europe saying no to the process of forced Islamisation, and is not afraid to fight against financial speculation.”

The FDI, created in 2012 following a split in Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) coalition. The party is currently sitting in the opposition ranks of the Italian parliament. However, it fought the March election in the centre-right coalition as a junior partner, together with Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

The ECR is keeping its door open to Lega. Initial contact was made by Salvini himself, who flew to Warsaw in January to meet Poland’s nationalist leader Jarosław Kaczyński, the current leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. The aim was to test the waters for a possible Eurosceptic alliance after the EU elections.

Read More @ Russia-Insider.com