France’s Le Pen hints at far-right alliance with Italy’s Meloni
Europe's far-right figureheads Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni are hinting they could join forces following this summer's EU elections, after Le Pen's French party announced a break with its radical German ally AfD.
The overtures presage a possible reconfiguration of nationalist parties' alliances after voters decide the next European Parliament in June 6-9 elections.
Surveys suggest the parliament's far-right groups - currently fractured - will win around 37 percent of seats in the next legislative term, up from 30 percent currently.
At a far-right rally in Madrid on Sunday, Le Pen declared: "We are all together in the final stretch to make June 9 a day of liberation and hope."
A day later Meloni, prime minister of Italy since October 2022, said in a television interview that she wanted to replicate the success of her post-fascist party at home and "do the same thing in Europe: ally parties that are compatible with each other in terms of vision, even with completely different nuances".
The door to that scenario opened wider Tuesday when Le Pen's National Rally (RN) said it was splitting with the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The announcement came after the AfD's lead EU candidate Maximilian Krah told an Italian newspaper that not every member of the Nazi's feared SS was "automatically a criminal".
'Queen bees'
Analysts say key issues divide the parliament's far-right factions.
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