Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) party has the ambition to expand its Romanian presence, Lino Elicona, head of FdI Romania told Romanian sports and lifestyle portal Fanatik in an interview.
Given the special provisions of the Italian constitution regarding elections, boosting the party’s presence in the country with a large Italian community has a direct goal that could translate into parliamentary mandates, Elicona says.
“We, the Brothers of Italy, are present all over the world and represent the interests of the Italian community in Romania. The Italian legislation allows the registration of candidates for each continent: one from Europe, one from South America, etc. They can run for election in Italy. Out of them, five people will be elected to Parliament: two to the Chamber of Deputies, three to the Senate,” said Elicona.
Under the direction of Meloni, FdI opened its first chapter in Romania back in 2020, established by Italian businessman Alessandro Console. Elicona, an art critic and head of an Italian company in Romania employing 160 people, took over this role in May.
FdI does want to boost its presence in Romania, but is not interested in gaining representation in Romania’s legislative branch, says Elicona.
“The Italian community is getting bigger in Romania every year. These people live here, have families and are represented in your parliament, which is normal,” he says. “Now, in Romania, we want to open “circolo” (circles) in Brasov, Cluj, Timisoara (three of the country’s five largest cities after the capital, Bucharest). There is a huge demand and we prefer not to stay only in Bucharest. We intend to open a center for each county.”
“As a Romanian, you can join the party, but you don’t have the right to vote in elections. We are not talking about a party that competes with the Romanian parties,” explained the president of Fratelli d’Italia Romania.
Italy has the largest Romanian community of all EU member states (followed by Spain and Germany) of about 1.14 million official residents, but the real figure is closer to 2 million. Elicona says that while FdI is against illegal immigration, it has no problem with the Romanian citizens living there.
“Everyone says that Meloni is a leader who does not want strangers in her house. It’s not that, it’s not the 1800s anymore. The problem is illegal migration, which must be stopped. There are 2 million of you (Romanians) in our country, you are already part of the Italian state,” Elicona said in the interview.
“With such a large population, it’s normal that there are some problems, someone doing something stupid, but these are isolated cases. The Romanian people have adapted very well in the Italian state.”
