this video was brought to you by brilliant over the last few months Italian Prime Minister Georgia Malone has become somewhat of an unlikely force in European politics having previously trashed the EU and called its institutions rotten to the core she's begun to take a more pragmatic approach and now her hard-right views on immigration and even her climate skepticism have started to seep into decision-making in Brussels even EU commission president Ursula felion is increasingly cting Maloney who she sees as a crucial Ally in her own bid for reelection so in this video we'll take a look at Maloney's politics how she wants to mold the EU and whether she can [Music] succeed before we start if you haven't already please consider subscribing and ringing the bell to stay in the loop and be notified when we release new videos so let's take a look at what Maloney wants from the EU firstly to give you a bit of context Maloney who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party has always been very euroskeptic and previously called for Italy to leave the Euro Zone which she said was obsolete she's also firmly against the idea of further European integration pushing for a more sovereignist EU made up of individual Nations that put their own National interest before the collective European one when Maloney won Italy's general election in 2022 her nationalist views put her at odds with the Centrist EU governments of France Germany and the Netherlands and the then then Dutch prime minister Mark Rutter actually called her Victory a cause for concern but over the two years she's been in power Maloney stance towards the EU has softened somewhat and it looks like she's now trying to reshape the block from within basically Maloney wants looser structures and a more right-wing EU Parliament that will give her and other simly nationalist parties more influence over European politics particularly over a few areas that we'll look at now immigration the green transition and the eu's bureaucracy so first up is the eu's migration politics Maloney Rose to power in Italy by vowing to promote national identity and defend what her party sees as traditional European culture in a similar way to hungary's Victor Orban Malone's views on immigration and cultural mixing are also pretty extreme and in her 2021 autobiography she warned of the dangers of ethnic substitution and the dilution of Europe's Christian culture so she's clamped down hard introducing a range of tough immigration policies targeting undocumented arrivals to Italy from North Africa such as tougher detention measures restrictions on sea rescue Charities and 10 new migrant detention centers in Albania crucially she's also influenced the eu's recent immigration policies too with Brussels increasing its collaboration with Africa to try and stem the flow of small boats across the Mediterranean now Maloney's second big concern is the eu's climate agenda which he has two main issues with firstly she sees it as an ideological issue of the left and secondly she's concerned about the impact that the eu's green energy targets will have on European industry and the economy more widely Brothers of Italy voted against the eu's nature restoration laws which have now been shelved after Hungary signaled its opposition on Monday and Italy has also opposed the eu's plans to ban fossil fuel powered vehicles by 20135 politically farmers are a key voter group for brothers of Italy and the huge protest we saw earlier this year resulted in Maloney promising tax breaks for the agricultural sector and pushing Brussels to give Farmers more concessions by scrapping various regulations from the eu's 2030 climate targets economically too Maloney wants to bolster Italian industry which is strong in Iron steel and car manufacturing and machinery and Italy's economy is made up mostly of small and mediumsized businesses that can't afford to invest in capital intensive and bureaucratic climate programs now finally Malone's third major concern is EU bureaucracy Maloney said in December that the EU needs to go from being a bureaucratic giant to a political Giant and that the EU needs to reform its budget bureaucracy and Justice systems Maloney's Brothers of Italy party is a member of the European conservatives and reformists or ECR parliamentary group whose whole thing is opposing European integration the ecr's manifesto says the EU is quote too centralized too ambitious and too out of touch with ordinary citizens and it sets out six objectives for reform that the EU respects its member states focuses on specific areas is more flexible more democratically accountable delivers value for money and is more outward-looking now the ECR along with other right-wing groups is expected to win lots more seats in the June elections which would give Maloney more power to try and enact these changes polling analysis by the European Council of Foreign Relations predicts that the ECR will gain 80 seats bringing its total to 85 and more if orban's fides party which Maloney has been trying to convince to join the ECR rather than remain unaffiliated decides to join at two so will Malone's plan for Europe work well there's already some signs that the EU is coming round to Maloney's way of thinking on certain issues looking at immigration for example the EU has certainly taken a leaf out of Malone's book by striking up new deals with African nations to stop unauthorized migration to Europe with Brussels this month pledging € 210 million EUR to morania and 7.4 billion EUR to Egypt with at least 200 million specifically for migration the EU commission president Ursula felion has also taken on some of Maloney's tougher language having toward lampedusa with her in September and saying we will decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances not the Smugglers ultimately though how much sway Maloney actually has over Europe will be decided by by two things the European Parliament elections and whether she can maintain popularity in Italy currently she's looking pretty secure in Italy and her polling is slightly stronger than when she was first elected while Italy's economy is set to continue growing slowly in 2024 and see improved investment in 2025 there's also little threat to her leadership at home with the center-left opposition in disarray and Malone's Coalition partners are unlikely to unseat her nevertheless Maloney hopes to win more seats in the European Parliament and have more influence on the European commission after the June elections and we can already see Maloney's increased efforts to swing things her way she's working to build a coalition of conservative and nationalist forces which may or may not include orban's fides party who will all put their own national interests first however even if Maloney manages to assemble enough troops to swing the pendulum right in the EU Parliament that won't necessarily mean that they all agree on how to tackle issues like migration Ukraine and economic issues for example the Sweden Democrats have already threatened to quit the ECR if fides joins due to orban's coziness with Putin so the next few months will be a big test of Malone's negotiation skills heading into the elections and thereafter now understanding exactly what's going to happen here can be a little tricky requiring you to evaluate lots of information from different often partial sources it would be sensible then to begin improving your critical thinking skills so that you can keep sharp and better better understand what's going on and well our sponsor brilliant.org can help you do just that brilliant is the online learning platform that's designed specifically to teach you everything from maths data analysis programming and AI from the ground up you don't need a fancy degree or to have dedicated hundreds of hours to studying any of these all you need is a device with an internet connection and a few spare minutes each day and 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