FdI’s admission to the EPP ‘not under discussion at moment’

(Recasts) (ANSA) – ROME, AUG 7 – European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber said Monday that Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s brand of politics is very different to that of Germany’s far-right AfD group, while adding that she still had some work to do to prove her European credentials.
“Meloni is now respected and accepted internationally,” Weber said of Italy’s first woman premier, who was sworn in last October, in an interview with Germany’s Zdf television.
“She supported the Lisbon Treaty in the Italian parliament and the Migration Pact and she wants to shape Europe.
“I think we would make a big mistake if we put AfD and Giorgia Meloni on the same level”.
Weber added that FdI’s admission to the centre-right EPP “is not under discussion at the moment.
“I believe that Giorgia Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia must demonstrate in the coming weeks and months that they are at the side of this Europe,” he said. (ANSA).