Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lashed out at the way the major groupings in the European parliament have divided up key EU posts in an address to the Italian parliament in Rome on Wednesday.
The decisions ignored the successes scored by far-right parties in elections at the beginning of June, she said. One of the elections' incontestable outcomes had been the rejection of the policies of governing parties in certain countries, Meloni said.
Meloni described the agreements reached as a "fireside chat" by a small group.
"If we wish to be of service to Europe and its credibility, we have to show that we have understood the mistakes of the past and take into consideration the wishes of the citizens, who are demanding a more concrete and less ideological Europe," she said.
The EU was too subject to ideological decision-making, she said. This had undermined the confidence of its citizens. "The perception is that of a union that intervenes too much in the aspects of everyday life," Meloni said.
The major EU groupings have put forward Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the bloc's new foreign policy head. Former Portuguese prime minister António Costa is to be the next European Council president.
A summit of EU leaders starting on Thursday plans to approve the appointments, but final confirmation is up to the new European Parliament.
