The News
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offered to act as a bridge between Europe and the US, in a nod to the growing gulf threatening the transatlantic alliance.
Meloni, the only European leader to attend US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, said in an interview with the Financial Times that it was “in the interests of everyone” to patch up fraying ties.
Her remarks come as relations have hit a post-war low, with Washington imposing trade curbs on EU goods and the US defense secretary bemoaning European “free-loading,” while European nations question their reliance on American military manufacturers. Meloni was more sanguine: “I like to say that crisis always hides an opportunity,” she told the FT.
SIGNALS
Meloni’s Ukraine shift reflects EU divisions over security guarantees to Kyiv
Meloni’s skepticism over France and UK’s proposal to send a European “reassurance force” to Ukraine as part of a post-war deal, reflects the continent’s divisions over security guarantees to Kyiv. Meloni, who has previously clashed with Paris over the idea, told the Financial Times that Moscow could interpret such a move as a threat: “We have to be careful here.” Her pushback against the so-called “coalition of the willing” to defend Ukraine is “a way for Italy to avoid facing the fact that NATO has weakened,” a France-Italy relations expert argued in The Conversation. It also reflects her gradual shift away from centrist views and toward her far-right roots, Foreign Affairs wrote.
Meloni’s reputation as the ‘Trump whisperer’ may be at risk
Meloni’s reputation as Europe’s Trump whisperer is complicated by the US president upending transatlantic relations, forcing Germany and France to take the lead in Europe’s response. The turmoil means that “right now, Meloni does not have the leverage to play a mediating role with Trump,” an Italian politics expert told Reuters. Trump’s rapprochement with Russia is forcing Meloni — a once vocal Ukraine supporter — to walk a “diplomatic tightrope” in maintaining her “status as a major EU power broker, while keeping an increasingly Moscow-friendly White House onside,” The Telegraph wrote. She also has to contend with divisions within her coalition on how to respond to Trump, who is increasingly distrusted by Europeans: Trump could become a “serious headache” for Meloni, The Economist wrote.