‘All roads lead to Rome’ says Spain’s right-wing Vox party leader

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Both Italian and foreign politicians took the stage on the final day of the Arteju festival, where in her concluding speech Premier, Giorgia Meloni expressed pride in the festival and reflected on her party’s journey to power.

“We did not come to power as impromptu politicians. We came to power because we’ve studied for decades, we’ve listened to, we’ve developed a project, we’ve talked deeply with Italy.”

She also pointed out that the centre-right has “existed for 30 years because it shared a value system and a common vision”.

The Italian Premier thanked Spain’s Vox party leader, Santiago Abascal, whom she said she would continue to work with to make their political family increasingly a player in Europe.

Abascal also took to the stage where he accused the Left in Spain of manipulating his words. He said that all hopes for a change of direction in Europe “look to Rome”.

On Saturday British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak also joined Meloni on stage to talk about migration.

They also held a meeting where they agreed on the need to tackle illegal immigration to Europe, pledging to intensify cooperation in the fight against human trafficking.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Meloni’s office said the talks with the British premier “focused primarily on the joint work in the field of migration within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in London” in April.

The two leaders reportedly agreed to co-fund an Italian-British project of assisted voluntary repatriations to countries of origin drawn up by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for migrants stranded in Tunisia.

The two leaders were also joined by Albanian Premier Edi Rama, seen as a key ally in the efforts to manage the constant rise in migrants’ arrivals from North Africa to European shores.

 The three premiers also reportedly “reiterated the importance of achieving a definitive stabilisation of the Western Balkans, also based on the steps taken recently in the process of enlargement of the European Union to (countries in) the region”.