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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Italy's prime minister has demonstrated an affinity with the US president, but she must also maintain loyalty to her EU partners...
Sitting alone at the end of a dinner, under chandeliers, next to a table with white roses and leftover wine, Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump were deep in conversation.
In early December, they were photographed in a dining room at the Élysée Palace, where French President Emmanuel Macron hosted guests after the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
It was the first time Italy's far-right prime minister had met Trump. Whatever was discussed at the meeting, however, Meloni seemed to have his support. Trump later described her as "a real direct line" and someone he could work with "to fix the world a little bit." He may have gotten positive information about her from Elon Musk, with whom the Italian prime minister has met several times.
As the relationship progressed, Meloni paid a flying visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida a month later and was the only European leader to attend his inauguration as US president.
Now her influence over Trump will be tested when the pair reunite in Washington on Thursday for their first bilateral summit. Meloni is the first European leader to meet with Trump since he halted some of his planned tariff hikes last week.
The summit will be closely watched. On the one hand, it is an ideal opportunity for Meloni to demonstrate an affinity with Trump, with whom her natural political leanings lie, boosting her credentials as a conduit for more meaningful dialogue. On the other, it will be a delicate balancing act for the prime minister, who also knows she must be careful to maintain her loyalty to Italy’s EU partners.
Behind the scenes, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Meloni are thought to have discussed a game plan. However, the trip has caused anxiety among EU allies, with French Industry Minister Marc Ferracci speaking out about undermining European unity.
Their concerns are not without reason. Meloni, a former Eurosceptic, defended a scathing attack on European values by Trump's deputy, JD Vance, at the Munich Security Conference in February. She will return to Rome on Friday to meet with JD Vance, who is in Italy for the Easter weekend.
On Ukraine, despite standing with allies during the US administration of Joe Biden, its Brothers of Italy party abstained, for the first time, on a European Parliament resolution in March that reaffirmed support for Kiev against Russian aggression. It has been lukewarm about the “coalition of the willing” championed by Macron and Keir Starmer.
Kathleen van Brempt, a Belgian socialist MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament's committee on international trade, said concerns about Meloni were understandable.
"Meloni knows that she needs the support of the council, the commission and the parliament in all the talks she has. She cannot go further than what has been agreed. The first goal is to get someone on the other side of the negotiating table. That is exactly what Meloni will try to do in Washington," she said.
Antonio Giordano, a Brothers of Italy MP and secretary general of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party, who attended last year's Republican national convention in the US, said Meloni's priority would be to have a frank conversation with Trump - hopefully one that would break the EU-US deadlock. / Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "The Guardian"
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