The year started very well for Giorgia Meloni. While many in Europe were anxiously awaiting the start of Trump's second term in the US, the Italian Prime Minister flew to Florida, where she spoke with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate about the release of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from an Iranian prison. She is also said to have spoken with Elon Musk about a potential one billion euro deal with his company SpaceX.
Shortly after her trip to Florida, Meloni flew back to the US - this time to Washington for Trump's inauguration celebrations. There, she was the only EU head of government invited. Many already saw the Italian Prime Minister as a mediator between Europe and the US, writes the German public media ARD on this occasion.
For Ukraine by conviction
In February, Meloni participated via video link in the CPAC conference in Washington - the meeting of American right-wing populists. There, she spoke out against the “virus of cancel culture“, “woke ideology“ and against the “radical left“. With this, she earned a lot of applause from Trump supporters.
But on another topic, she took a position that is quite unusual for the Trump camp: she emphasized the importance of the transatlantic alliance and praised Ukraine for being a “proud nation“ fighting for its freedom against an “illegal aggression“. Just five days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was humiliated by Trump and his Vice President J.D. Vance in the White House in front of the whole world. A scene that probably made a strong impression on Meloni, who has no doubt who the aggressor in this conflict is, ARD emphasizes.
The fact that Trump is trying to turn this narrative in favor of Putin goes against Meloni's most important political principle - for her, he is above all others, says Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at Rome's "Luis" University. Since the Russian attack on Ukraine violated Ukrainian sovereignty, her support for Kiev is quite logical.
Between Trump and the EU
Yet Meloni was the only head of government from a major European country who did not publicly support Zelensky immediately after the scandal in the White House. Instead, she called for unity, saying the West must not allow itself to be divided, and spoke by phone with Trump.
When EU leaders discussed an 800 billion euro package for the military and Ukraine at an emergency summit, Meloni ultimately agreed. At the same time, she repeatedly stressed the need to maintain the transatlantic partnership with the United States. "Meloni is trying to show that European mobilization is not something hostile to the United States, but in the context of cooperation," Orsina said, quoted by ARD.
A bigger army despite huge debt?
The Italian prime minister is also trying to strike a balance in domestic politics: Italy is well below NATO's 2% of GDP defense spending target and is under intense pressure to make progress in this regard. The government therefore wants to increase the professional army by up to 40,000 soldiers as part of the national security plan. However, it is still unclear how this will be financed. The level of public debt is over 134%. According to media reports, one option is to use funds from the EU rearmament program worth 800 billion euros for this purpose.
However, the government's plans are met with a lot of skepticism from the population. The opposition is also extremely critical of the Italian and European rearmament program. Even within Meloni's ruling coalition there is criticism, especially from Deputy Prime Minister and Putin admirer Matteo Salvini.
There is a similar disagreement on whether Italy should send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. Giorgia Meloni is ready to do so provided that these troops have a UN mandate, but Salvini and the opposition are against it. According to political scientist Orsina, the Italian prime minister may not be the most convinced European, but she currently guarantees that Italy will be part of the “European team”, writes the German public media ARD.
Author: Verena Schelter ARD