Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian opposition leader Elly Schlein will face off in a televised debate ahead of the European Parliament elections, according to POLITICO.
The much-anticipated confrontation is due to take place on 23 May on the TV show “Porta a Porta,” hosted by Bruno Vespa on Rai1, Italian media reported on Saturday. The candidates are expected to discuss key policy areas including employment, health and migration.
Elly Schlein, secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, has spoken out against Giorgia Meloni for her policies, including her proposal to change Italy’s constitution to allow citizens to directly vote for the prime minister.
Meloni announced she would run in European elections last month with ambitions to create a majority that would “brings together the center-right forces” and to “send the left into the opposition even in the EU,” she said at a party event in Pescara, Italy.
The Brothers of Italy party is part of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which could be part of a coalition with the European People’s Party (EPP), as hinted at by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a debate in Maastricht late last month. According to polls, Meloni’s party is expected to get 27.2 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Democratic Party (20.3 per cent) and the Five Star Movement (16.8 per cent).
