BRUSSELS: The far-right EU parliament group led by Giorgia Meloni's party is on track to overtake its centrist rival linked to France's Emmanuel Macron -- as the Italian leader pushes for a greater say in a battle for the bloc's top jobs.
The jostling for position comes ahead of an EU leaders' summit next week to allocate the influential jobs -- largely based on the weight of the parliament's political groups following this month's election.
Meloni believes the relative success of her European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) should translate to a key spot in the carve-up of positions and has been making her views known.
"It is a role of the highest rank that I intend to claim for Italy," she told Il Giornale newspaper on Wednesday, calling it "surreal" that fellow leaders had floated an initial lineup without involving her camp.
Parliamentary insiders however say the balance of power in the 720-seat European legislature remains essentially unchanged from the last legislature. It lies with a centrist tie-up made up of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), the biggest group with 189 seats, the leftist Socialists & Democrats (S&D) with 136, and the liberal Renew Europe that includes the French president's party.
But a provisional parliament tally as of Friday had ECR, dominated by Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, edging into third place with 83 seats, versus Renew's 81. And Renew's count was poised to shrink even further, after Czech party ANO -- which has seven EU lawmakers -- said Friday it was leaving to seek a new home.
The final counts will be known by Wednesday, just ahead of an EU summit on Thursday and Friday meant to settle nominations for the European Commission, the European Council, and the bloc's top foreign policy official.
A second term for the EPP's Ursula von der Leyen as commission chief seems likely after leaders voiced broad agreement on her candidacy in Brussels this week -- though she still needs backing from a majority in parliament.
The names put forward for the other jobs are: former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa, of the S&D, for European Council president; and Renew's Kaja Kallas, the current Estonian premier, as the EU's foreign policy "high representative".
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