Right-wing politicians gathered in Italy at a political rally hosted by League leader Matteo Salvini in the run-up to next year’s European Parliament elections, with the parties focusing on fighting mass immigration and the left-liberal bloc’s domination of European politics.
During the rally, France’s Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the National Rally, said that Europe’s right-wing parties must gather forces together to protect the people of Europe against mass immigration.
“We are defending our traditions, our gastronomy, our identities, our landscapes (…) we are defending our peoples against the flood of migrants,” said Marine Le Pen, with Le Pen directly referencing the recent surge in immigration at the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is seeing thousands of migrants arriving each day, including a record of nearly 7,000 in 24 hours last week.
Le Pen was at the rally in Pontida on Sunday at the invitation of Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Italian League, where she declared that her party and those gathered were in a common fight to defend freedom and the homeland at the rally, according to Hungarian news outlet Mandiner.
“To those who pretend to defend the status quo or to justify their lives that there is no other alternative, you (pointing to the crowd) have demonstrated that political will can do it. You have demonstrated the political will that Europe needs. By the force of your convictions and your actions, you have demonstrated that there are still Europeans willing to protect our continent, our cultures, and our civilization,” said Le Pen.
Le Pen was one of the foreign guests invited to the political meeting at the source of the Po River, which was attended by a number of European right-wing forces, including a delegation from the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The president of the National Rally called next year’s European elections a “resistance of the European peoples to outside influence.”
Matteo Salvini said that if he had to choose between French President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, there is no doubt that he would choose the latter:
“We have a common task to win in Italy and in the European Union.”
He said it would be a sin to exclude anyone from the alliance of center-right and right-wing parties. He announced that before the end of the year, he would call a mass demonstration of the forces preparing to replace the European left next year.
Elections for the European Parliament will be held next spring, and France will hold elections this coming Sunday for half of the 348 seats in the Senate.