(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 20 - Premier Giorgia Meloni defended her decision this week to order MEPs from her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party to vote against a second-term for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in an interview published in Saturday's Corriere della Sera.
    "I behaved as a European leader should behave because I asked myself whether it was the right trajectory," Meloni said.
    "The citizens asked for a change of pace (in June's European elections) and I did what I thought was right.
    "If you decide to say yes only to do what others are doing, you are not doing the job that a leader should do.
    "There has often been a lack of politics, which is about vision and decision, in Europe.
    "The method chosen to decide the (EU) top jobs can compromise both.
    "By allying political forces that do not think the same way about anything, the risk is that you don't have a clear vision".
    Meloni said she does not fear Italy getting a secondary role in the new EU executive after voting against von der Leyen.
    "I speak to the Commission President all the time. We have learned to respect each other," Meloni said.
    "We have cooperated up to now and we'll continue to do so in the future too.
    "Everyone recognizes Italy's importance and its role and I'm certain that this will be what is assessed when the posts are decided".
    Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League party, meanwhile, hit back hard at fellow Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said the right-wing group risked being "irrelevant" in Europe after voting against von der Leyen's re-election.
    Tajani was commenting on the fact that the right-wing Patriots for Europe group that the League belongs to at the EU level did not have any of its members elected as vice-presidents of the European Parliament.
    Tajani's Forza Italia (FI) is part of von der Leyen's centre-right European People's Party (EPP).
    The Commission president's re-election was also backed by the Socialist S&D group, which Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) belongs to, the liberal Renew Europe group and the Greens, but not by Conservative ECR group FdI is part of.
    "Voting with Schlein in order to get a position is embarrassing," League sources said referring to PD leader Elly Schlein.
    "It's better to not have any vice-presidents than to be with the Greens and the Left".
    On the domestic front, Schlein said Saturday that she was optimistic about the chances of Italy's opposition parties forming a 'broad field,' going from the Centre of the political spectrum to the Left, in order to challenge Meloni's ruling centre-right coalition.
    "As the Democratic Party, we are stubbornly in favour of unity everywhere, we are even more so after the good result we saw at the local and European elections (recently)," Schlein told reporters on the sidelines of an initiative in Perugia against the government law bringing 'differentiated autonomy' for the nation's regions. "When there is a credible candidate and when a shared project is put forward based on concrete priorities, I am convinced that a broad convergence can be achieved among the parties that want to build an alternative to the right".
    A factor in the ease with which Meloni's coalition won the 2022 general election was the fact that the opposition parties were divided.
    The so-called 'broad field', featuring the centre-left PD, the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) and two centrist parties, Azione (Az, Action) of former industry minister Carlo Calenda and Italia Viva (IV) of former premier and ex PD chief Matteo Renzi, has been tried with some success at regional and local elections but not at the national level.
    On Friday, Renzi said that the only hope of taking on the Right was via cooperation with the centre-left after an attempt to build a centrist 'third pole' with Azione failed.
    IV and Azione ran together at the 2022 general election but they stood separately in June's European elections following a row and neither party obtained the threshold needed to have any MEPs elected. (ANSA).