EU Council chief travels to Romania for talks on agenda for future with other bloc leaders

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — European Council President Charles Michel traveled to Romania’s capital on Wednesday for talks with several European Union country leaders on the bloc’s so-called strategic agenda to address goals for the next five-year period.

Michel arrived in Bucharest at the presidential Cotroceni Palace where he was hosted by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. The informal meetings, which are periodically held in different EU capitals, come ahead of the June 6-9 elections for the European Parliament.

Michel said in a joint press conference that the 27-nation bloc has in recent years faced an “extraordinarily difficult” period of challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and energy crises, and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Over the next five years, he said the EU will focus on bolstering security and defense, increasing economic stability and prosperity, bloc enlargement, and strengthening the democratic values that underpin the EU project. “Despite all the efforts in the past, there are still a lot of challenges ahead,” Michel said.

“The goal is to make sure the European countries are more responsible to address the security challenges and to take into account the threats we face,” he added. “Investments in that field are important.”

For his part, Iohannis also cited the series of crises the EU has faced in recent years including the energy crisis, the effects of climate change, illegal migration, and the war in neighboring Ukraine.

“Major challenges await us, but we also have the lessons learned from the last five extremely difficult years, in which the (EU) has proven that it is resilient, adaptable and capable of protecting its citizens,” said Iohannis, who announced his bid last month to become the next leader of NATO.

“We must remain committed to making every effort together to protect our values, the European spirit and the hard-won democracy in some member states,” he added.

The two leaders were later joined by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

European Council President Charles Michel walks with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis before a press conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

European Council President Charles Michel, left, poses with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, center, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

European Council President Charles Michel gestures during a press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

European Council President Charles Michel, left, poses with Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, center, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

European Council President Charles Michel gestures during a press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

ROME (AP) — He was fired by the defense minister after writing a book deemed offensive to women, gays and Blacks. He is under investigation by Rome prosecutors for allegedly inciting racial hatred. He set off a firestorm over suggestions that disabled children be taught separately at school.

And on Tuesday, Gen. Roberto Vannacci, one of Italy’s most experienced army generals, joined Italy’s deputy premier and leader of the right-wing League party, Matteo Salvini, as the League’s headline candidate for upcoming European Parliament elections.

Salvini’s gamble to put the provocative Vannacci out front for the June 6-9 vote is something of a Hail Mary pass for the League, which has hemorrhaged support in recent years to the more hard-right Brothers of Italy party of Premier Giorgia Meloni.

By taking advantage of the media storm over Vannacci, Salvini is trying to breathe new life into his party, a junior partner in Meloni’s government, analysts said.

“Matteo Salvini has a party in crisis,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a professor of political history at Rome’s Luiss university. He noted that the League took 34% of the vote in 2019 European Parliament elections, and today is polling no more than 8%.

“He (Vannacci) has become a media personality whom Salvini is using to try to have some more support, let’s say a few tens of thousands more votes that this general could bring the League,” Castellani said in a telephone interview.

Vannacci’s candidacy has dominated Italian political discourse, headlines and newscasts for days and drew a standing-room only audience Tuesday at Rome’s Hadrian’s Temple, an ancient Roman temple-turned-conference center not far from parliament.

Officially, Salvini was presenting his new memoir-manifesto “Against the Wind: The Italy that Doesn’t Surrender.” But the event represented the first Salvini-Vannacci outing, and Vannacci used it as a campaign stop to outline his views on migration, Europe’s Christian roots and the need to defend Europe’s borders.

He lamented, for example, that the official poster of the Paris Olympic Games, an artistic rendering of the French capital, doesn't feature any crosses atop the Hôtel des Invalides. Their absence created a brief controversy last month in France when the poster was unveiled.

“Unfortunately, all these symbols that should inspire us a sense of belonging have been erased, blurred, diluted, almost as to give an image that Europe should look more like a bunch of junk, where everyone is included but no one feels like they belong,” Vannacci said Tuesday.

Vannacci led Italian troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya — and before that in the Balkans, Rwanda and Somalia — and was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit in 2018 for his leadership against the Islamic State group.

But Italy’s defense minister fired him in August as head of the military’s geographical institute, and later disciplined him, after he self-published “The World In Reverse,” a manifesto in which Vannacci let loose on his beliefs about LGBTQ+ people, the environmental lobby, multiculturalism and migration.

“Gen. Vannacci expressed opinions that discredit the army, the defense ministry and the constitution,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto tweeted at the time, announcing disciplinary action against him for having written the book without his superiors’ authorization.

In February, Rome prosecutors opened an investigation into alleged incitement to racial hatred, Italian news reports said. And this week, Vannacci kept the outrage alive, on the left and right, by telling La Stampa newspaper that disabled children should be taught separately in schools.

“This has nothing to do with freedom of opinion, but is offensive to the history and culture of our country,” said Sandra Savino, a regional leader of the center-right Forza Italia in Fruili Venezia Giulia.

Salvini has defended Vannacci’s right to express his opinions and accused the media of taking his comments about disability out of context. On Tuesday, he said he approached Vannacci after the firestorm over his book in the summer, and the two hit it off.

He said he didn’t share all of Vannacci’s ideas, but said Vannacci doesn’t share all of his, either.

Vannacci, for his part, said he knew he was taking a risk by publishing his book, but believed he owed it to his children to speak his truth and now fight in politics for them.

“I wanted to give them a better future, a better Europe,” he said.

Salvini’s choice has divided the League, with its more center-right base opposed to the more hard-right choice that Vannacci represents.

Castellani, the Luiss professor, said such internal dissent underscored the problems the League is facing and risks that Salvini might be replaced.

“Salvini is creating a media personality, which might be an opportunity for him,” he said. “But a personality is always dangerous because he can become a political adversary, or he can become embarrassing or voters can get bored with him.”

The League leader Matteo Salvini, right, arrives to his book presentation flanked by General Roberto Vannacci, one of the League candidates at the next European Parliament election, in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The League leader Matteo Salvini, right, arrives to his book presentation flanked by General Roberto Vannacci, one of the League candidates at the next European Parliament election, in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

General Roberto Vannacci attends the presentation of a book by the League leader Matteo Salvini in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Vannacci will be one of the League candidates at the next European Parliament elections. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

General Roberto Vannacci attends the presentation of a book by the League leader Matteo Salvini in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Vannacci will be one of the League candidates at the next European Parliament elections. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The League leader Matteo Salvini, left, arrives to his book presentation flanked by General Roberto Vannacci, one of the League candidates at the next European Parliament election, in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)