The battle between Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sánchez has opened an unexpected front: the FAO.
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Italy and Spain are competing for the general director position of the UN agency for food and agriculture. Rome is promoting the candidacy of former minister Maurizio Martina, current deputy director general of the organization, while the Spanish government insists on the current Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas. At the same time, the EPP supports the former Irish European Commissioner Phil Hogan.
The final vote is scheduled for February 2027, but movements are already intense.
The Italian accusation is that Spain wants to accumulate too much power in the food sector, as it also aims to maintain control of two other agencies: the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), already led by Álvaro Lario, and the leadership positions of the World Food Programme (WFP).
The tension has reached the point that, according to Corriere della Sera, the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, who also maintains an excellent personal relationship with Planas, wrote a letter to his Cypriot counterpart, Maria Panayiotou, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to request unified support from Brussels based on a global balance in the distribution of agencies. A way of saying that Spain cannot keep everything.
Another point of friction is which body should set the European position: the Ministers of Agriculture, including Planas himself, or, as Italy intends, the Foreign Ministers. In Brussels, it is considered likely that the matter will end up on the European Council’s table.
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Meloni’s support for Martina, former PD leader, leaves the Italian opposition in an uncomfortable position against Sánchez
The situation becomes even more complicated in Italy because Maurizio Martina was, although for a short time, secretary of the Democratic Party (center-left), a close ally of the PSOE.
His candidacy arises from an agreement between Meloni and Elly Schlein, in one of the few gestures of dialogue between government and opposition.
In Madrid, they suspect that Meloni’s support for Martina is part of a maneuver to trap the left-wing opposition
“We present a Democratic Party leader, Maurizio Martina, to head an international organization like the FAO, and the socialists, allies of Schlein, with Pedro Sánchez oppose us with another name? I will protest to the EU,” Lollobrigida told a La Repubblica journalist.
PD leaders are working, especially in Brussels, to gather support for their former secretary, a task hindered by Spanish pressure.
In Madrid, they suspect that the initial support for Martina is part of a political operation against the Democratic Party: backing him at first and, if his candidacy ends up failing, replacing him with their own candidate and placing the responsibility on the closeness between Schlein and Sánchez.
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