Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-migrant League, reunited his European populist allies in Florence on Sunday, in the conspicuous absence of Geert Wilders, the winner of the Dutch parliamentary election, and the leader of the French National Union, Marine . Le Pen, reports AFP.

The show in the capital of Tuscany called “Free Europe! Jobs, Security, Common Sense’ aimed to place elected representatives of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament, which includes the League, the National Union (RN) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ), in the perspective of elections to the European Parliament in June.

“Today in Florence, men and women of common sense and courage have united to defeat the enemy who is the first enemy of Europe, the masonic technocrats who want to destroy the identity of our continent,” Salvini said from the podium.

This meeting also had an internal political dimension for the League in front of the Fratelli d’Italia party of Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney, an ally but above all a great rival of Salvini, who, on the other hand, is part of the Group of European Conservatives. and reformists together with the Spaniards with Vox and the Polish party Law and Justice (PiS).

For two hours, the speakers of the delegations of a dozen European countries came to the podium to defend their vision.

Among them was the leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion. “Our future is together,” said the AUR leader, who spoke in Italian.

The leaders of the two biggest parties in the group, as well as the League, were initially announced as arriving in Florence, RN leader Marine Le Pen, who is trying to de-demonize her party in France, and Alice Weidel, who is on the rise. polls, refused the meeting, as well as the leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) Geert Wilders.

The AfD sent its co-president Tino Chrupalla, while Ms Le Pen and Ms Wilders sent only a video message.

In her message, Le Pen criticized Ursula von der Leyen, who was accused of “bringing Europe to the market” and that, as the head of the Commission, she “acts against our peoples and our freedoms”.

MEP Jordan Bardella, President of the RN and one of the Vice Presidents of the ID Group, was present and gave a speech in Italian, recalling his family’s Italian origins. “It is precisely because we love Europe that we fight against the policies pursued by the European Union,” he said, as quoted by AFP.