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Tag: Italian politics

  • Italy’s Meloni plans a geopolitical Queen’s Gambit

    Italy’s Meloni plans a geopolitical Queen’s Gambit

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    Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and adviser at Gallos Technologies and a regular columnist for POLITICO.

    In the 17th century, the Italian chess player Gioachino Greco created the world’s first chess handbook. One of the moves he recorded was the Queen’s Gambit, an ingenious opening in three parts.  

    Almost exactly 300 years later, his compatriot Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is about to launch a Queen’s Gambit of her own — in foreign policy. And much like Greco’s move, it involves several interlinked steps that, if executed successfully, could yield great dividends.  

    When Greco began his pioneering manuscript detailing entire chess matches, he was already considered one of the world’s best players. By contrast, Meloni was hardly a household name outside of Italy before leading her party to victory in the country’s parliamentary elections last year.  

    The world didn’t really know what to expect — especially when it came to foreign policy. Since then, however, Meloni has been surefooted on issues ranging from Ukraine to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. And when heads of state and government gather to address the world’s most pressing challenges at the United Nations General Assembly this week, the Italian prime minister will outline her Queen’s Gambit.  

    Meloni’s move involves several interconnected steps that deal with the national-security risks posed by climate change, strengthening the Euro-Atlantic alliance and helping African countries become more stable and secure. “Meloni has recently talked a great deal about the need to look at the entire global chessboard without losing sight of any area or piece,” her foreign policy advisor Ambassador Francesco Taló told me.  

    “For example, by moving the queen toward the East, we risk not noticing the bishop coming from Africa,” he added. 

    One could argue that the urgent issues we currently face are so interlinked, every head of government needs to develop a Queen’s Gambit. “In today’s situation, you can’t have vertical policy lines,” noted Taló, who previously served as Italy’s ambassador to NATO. “So many things are interconnected.”  

    But the need for such a strategy is particularly obvious in Italy, which sits at the nexus of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and is a key participant in the globalized economy — as well as a similarly crucial participant in the West’s defense against Russia and its support of Ukraine. Then add to that the serious disruption coming every country’s way as artificial intelligence and climate change inexorably advance. 

    These real-world challenges are clearly not as neat as a chessboard, and the foreign policy moves have to be executed simultaneously rather than sequentially — but the intricacy of the strategy is the same.   

    Take climate change: To protect its astonishing number of UNESCO World Heritage sites — not to mention its famous viniculture and agriculture — Italy needs carbon reductions not just at home but around the world. Of course, far more than Italy’s stunning sites and food hangs in the balance here — without a significant reduction in carbon emissions, sections of Africa risk becoming uninhabitable, which would force even more people to make their way to Europe via Italy.  

    During the first half of this year, over 73,000 boat migrants reached the country — more than double the number from all of 2021. And if the world exceeds the crucial 1.5-degree average temperature increase, the number of those having to flee their homes will be many times that.

    Over 73,000 boat migrants reached the shores of Italy in the first half of 2023 | Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

    Just last week, thousands of Libyans died and thousands of others were left homeless when Storm Daniel pounded the country and collapsed a pair of dams. Meloni had phone calls with Libya’s two rival prime ministers, one after the other, the day after the disaster struck, and committed to assisting the country.  

    The U.N. Climate Change Summit COP28, which will be held in Dubai this December, will face this intricate task of addressing climate change even as the global economy worsens. Ultimately, however, the West needs to slash its carbon emissions — as does China. And in order to get results, the two sides need to work together closely, even as geopolitical tensions increase.  

    But these are not the only issues the Queen’s Gambit must address.  

    Like many other countries, Italy needs to slash its commercial links with Russia and reduce its dependence on China too. Meloni has already decided that Italy will leave China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country has managed to more than halve its Russian gas imports. The new electricity connector that’s being built between Tunisia and Sicily represents the flipside of this strategy — a new focus on expanded and multilayered collaboration with countries in Italy’s neighborhood.  

    This EU-financed connector will create jobs in Tunisia, help Italy reduce its dependence on Russian gas, and any surplus will go to Europe. And in the meantime, Meloni — joined by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — has also negotiated a migration agreement with Tunisia, which was signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July. 

    The Italian prime minister is, in fact, trying to create the kind of mutually beneficial relationship that has so often eluded European and African countries. That they would benefit from teaming up on climate change and better commercial links is clear — and Meloni believes Italy can also help make the case for Ukraine with some African leaders who might be best suited to propose ways out of the war.  

    “Italy is trying to engage not just with Ukraine’s traditional supporters but with other countries that are willing to propose solutions as well,” Taló said. “After all, any country can be assaulted by its neighbor, so every country should be able to understand Ukraine’s situation.”  

    In the Italian parliament, Meloni herself has dramatically dressed down legislators who have suggested supporting Ukraine is futile. That’s a world away from March 2020, when a COVID-stricken Italy asked its EU friends for help but received sluggish answers. Instead, the country had to turn to Russia and China, which made a big show of their rather limited assistance.  

    Greco helped the Queen’s Gambit become one of chess’s favorite opening moves, one that’s still used by grand masters today. It doesn’t always succeed, but it’s always worth trying because its rewards are considerable. There’s no guarantee that a Queen’s Gambit will work on the foreign policy stage either — but with so many crises and challenges pressing at the same time, trying to tackle them one by one is futile.

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    Elisabeth Braw

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  • Italy’s Meloni covers unpaid bill of tourist ‘idiots’ in Albania

    Italy’s Meloni covers unpaid bill of tourist ‘idiots’ in Albania

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    In an unusual diplomatic move, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni settled a restaurant bill of four Italian tourists who left a restaurant in Albania without paying.

    Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama raised the issue with his Italian counterpart while Meloni was visiting Albania with her family last week. The incident reportedly took place in Berat, which sits on the Osum River, .

    Meloni responded by telling her ambassador to “go and pay the bill for these idiots,” Italian paper La Stampa reported. The bill amount to around €80, according to the BBC.

    Italy’s embassy in Albania confirmed that it paid the bill with Meloni’s personal funds.

    “The Italians respect the rules and pay off their debts and we hope that episodes of this kind will not repeat themselves,” the embassy said.

    Francesco Lollobrigida, the Italian agriculture minister, told Reuters that it was a matter of national pride. “She offered to pay the bill. The ambassador was on his way back to Tirana and was available to do this,” he told the news service. “A few dishonest individuals cannot embarrass a nation of decent people,” Lollobrigida said.

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    Antoaneta Roussi

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  • Putin can’t count on his friends in Italy anymore

    Putin can’t count on his friends in Italy anymore

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    When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni walks into the Oval Office on Thursday, her transformation will be complete. 

    Gone is the ghoulish caricature of an extremist monster, sympathetic to Moscow, whose party was descended from fascists, and in her place stands a pragmatic conservative willing to do business with a grateful international mainstream. 

    For U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s backers in the West, securing Meloni’s long-term commitment to the war effort is vital: Italy will assume the leadership of the G7 next year, at what’s likely to be a critical time in the conflict. 

    Initially, the signs weren’t good. Before she was elected last September, Meloni alarmed officials in Western capitals with her blunt brand of far-right populism. She banged the drum for nationalist causes, vowing to slam the brakes on immigration, stand up to the European Union’s leadership in Brussels and even opposed sanctioning Russia over Ukraine. 

    Yet 10 months since Meloni won power, the picture has changed dramatically. She will receive VIP treatment at the White House Thursday, with a welcome from Biden that will be as sincere as for any other G7 ally. While the Democrat and the far-right populist share almost nothing in their political outlooks, their handshake is likely to be one of mutual relief. 

    Meloni’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, leader of the center-right Forza Italia party, told POLITICO that the Ukraine war had bolstered Italy’s relationship with the U.S. The Meloni government’s “three polar stars” are now the EU, the U.N. and NATO, he said.

    “Italy is part of the Western alliance and wants to be a protagonist in the Western alliance and in particular in its alliance with the U.S.A.,” Tajani said. “Since the crisis in Ukraine, our relationship on issues of security and shared policy with the U.S.A. has been getting stronger.”

    Putin’s pals

    It is a far cry from the sort of rhetoric that had, until recently, emanated from Rome. 

    As leader of the hard right Brothers of Italy, she supported Putin’s strongman politics while in opposition, congratulating him after his re-election by saying “the will of the people appears unequivocal.” 

    After Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea she repeatedly opposed sanctions against Russia, citing the need to protect Italian exports. During the pandemic Meloni endorsed Russia’s Sputnik vaccines. In a TV interview in 2022 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she highlighted how essential it was to remain on good terms with Putin and accused Biden of “using foreign policy to cover up the problems he has at home.” 

    If Meloni seemed like a problem to Western leaders, her coalition partners were an even worse prospect. Matteo Salvini, leader of the right wing League, who once wore a T-shirt printed with Putin’s face to the EU Parliament, attempted to arrange a peace mission to Moscow with flights paid by the Russian embassy. 

    And Meloni’s coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi, who led the center-right Forza Italia party until his death in June, blamed Ukraine for the war and had a personal friendship with Vladimir Putin, continuing to exchange gifts with the Russian leader even after the invasion. 

    When she took power, there were deep, if private, fears within the White House, according to several Biden administration officials who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, that Meloni might shatter the G7 support for Ukraine. 

    But Meloni surprised U.S. officials at the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May with just how eager she seemed to build a strong relationship with Biden, according to two government officials who witnessed their interactions. 

    At the NATO summit earlier this month in Vilnius, Meloni stood just a few feet from both Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when the G7 nations announced additional security guarantees for Kyiv that were meant as something of a make-good after NATO declined to fast-track Ukraine’s membership.

    At the NATO summit earlier this month in Vilnius, Meloni stood just a few feet from both Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

    With Italy set to take over the presidency of the G7 in January, Meloni’s support for the cause has prompted sighs of relief from both sides of the Atlantic.

    “The President and the Prime Minister have built a good, productive relationship as they have worked together closely on a variety of issues such as our support for Ukraine and our approach to China, and President Biden is looking forward to continuing that conversation,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for Biden’s national security council.

    Pleasantly surprised

    Biden has told those around him he has been pleasantly surprised by Meloni’s leadership in the war effort but is eager to get to know the Italian leader better, according to multiple administration officials. 

    For Alessandro Politi, Director of the NATO Defense College Foundation in Rome, Meloni “understood very quickly that when you get into government you have responsibilities and the U.S.A. is a primary ally.”

    Her visit to Kyiv in February was a clear sign she was following “an orthodox path” and a moment when “she convinced the wider international community that she was in charge of the coalition and that her allies had to follow her political line.”

    Meloni’s support for the Western stance does not mean the whole of Italy feels the same way. 

    Some populists on both the left and right of Italian politics still hold pro-Russian views, and the question of whether it’s right to send arms to Ukraine elicits fierce debate in the media. Italy’s longstanding position on Russia has always been to try to act as a bridge, facilitating good relations between East and West.

    But although a majority of Italians are opposed to it, Meloni has continued to back Ukraine with military aid. Ukrainians are “defending freedom and democracy on which our civilization is based,” she told the Italian Senate in March.  

    While Biden and Meloni are likely to agree on Ukraine, it is not certain that they will be in harmony on all issues. 

    In 2019 Italy became the only G7 country to join China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative. Later this year it is up for renewal, but in the new cold war climate the U.S. expects the deal to be scrapped.

    While Meloni has indicated that she might not extend the agreement with Beijing, calling it “a big mistake,” this position is not yet confirmed. If she does return to the more traditional Italian line of walking a middle ground, the cracks in the Biden-Meloni relationship will open up again. 

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    Hannah Roberts, Jonathan Lemire and Eli Stokols

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  • Zelenskyy meets with Italian officials, Pope Francis in Rome

    Zelenskyy meets with Italian officials, Pope Francis in Rome

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held private talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday, after meeting earlier in the day with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who promised full military and financial backing for Ukraine.

    Zelenskyy said he sought support for his peace plan from Pope Francis, who in the past has offered to try to help end the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022. The pontiff also indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.

    In a tweet after the 40-minute audience with the pope, Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Francis for “his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians.” He said he spoke with the pontiff “about the tens of thousands of deported [Ukrainian] children. We must make every effort to return them home.”

    Last month, Pope Francis told reporters that the Vatican was engaged in a behind-the-scene peace mission to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, without providing further details. “There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” he said. The pope and Zelenskyy last met in 2020, before Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    Zelenskyy asked the pope “to condemn Russian crimes in Ukraine. Because there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor,” the Ukrainian president said in his tweet.

    At a press conference earlier, Prime Minister Meloni condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust aggression” against Ukraine, pledged Italy’s support for Kyiv for “as long as is necessary” and urged Moscow to immediately withdraw.

    “You can’t achieve peace through a surrender,” Meloni said. “It would be a very grave precedent for all nations of the world.”

    Meloni emphasised Italy’s support for Ukraine’s membership of the EU and the “intensification” of a partnership with NATO.

    On his arrival in Rome Saturday morning, Zelenskyy had tweeted that the trip was “an important visit for approaching victory of Ukraine.”

    He was greeted at a military airfield at Rome’s Ciampino airport by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “We reaffirm our support for the Ukrainian people in defending freedom and democracy,” Tajani said.

    Also Saturday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed that Berlin has approved a new €2.7 billion package of weapons for Ukraine. “We all wish for a speedy end to this terrible and illegal war,” Pistorius said. “Unfortunately, this is not yet foreseeable.”

    Zelenskyy is reportedly expected to head to Berlin after Italy, upon the invitation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

    This article has been updated.

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    POLITICO Staff

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  • The old guard: Joe Biden seems like a spring chicken compared to some of these guys

    The old guard: Joe Biden seems like a spring chicken compared to some of these guys

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    When the U.S. president on Tuesday announced that he would seek reelection in 2024, attention quickly turned to his advanced age. 

    If elected, Joe Biden would be 82 on inauguration day in 2025, and 86 on leaving the White House in January 2029. 

    POLITICO took a look around the globe and back through history to meet some other elected world leaders who continued well into their octogenarian years, at a time when most people have settled for their dressing gown and slippers, some light gardening, and complaining about young people. 

    Here are seven of the oldest — and yes, they’re all men.

    Paul Biya

    President of Cameroon Paul Biya | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    The world’s oldest serving leader, Cameroon’s president has been in power since 1982, winning his (latest) reelection at the age of 85 with a North Korea-esque 71.28 percent of the vote. 

    Spanning more than four decades and seven consecutive terms — in 2008, a constitutional reform lifted term limits — Biya’s largely undisputed reign has not come without controversy. 

    His opponents have regularly accused him of election fraud, claiming he successfully built a state apparatus designed to keep him in power.

    Notorious for his lavish trips to a plush palace on the banks of Lake Geneva, which he’s visited more than 50 times, Biya keeps stretching the limits of retirement. Although he has not formally announced a bid for the next presidential elections in 2025, his party has called on him to run again in spite of his declining health.

    Last February, celebrations were organized throughout the country for the president’s 90th birthday. According to the government, young people spontaneously came out on the streets to show their love for Biya.

    Konrad Adenauer

    Former Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer | Keystone/Getty Images

    West Germany’s iconic first chancellor was elected for his inaugural term at the tender age of 73, but competed and won a third and final term at the age of 85. 

    In his 14-year chancellorship (1949-1963), Adenauer shaped Germany’s postwar years with a strong focus on integrating the young democracy into the West. Big milestones such as the integration of Germany into the European Economic Community and joining the NATO alliance just a few years after World War II happened under his leadership. 

    If his nickname “der Alte” (“the old man”) is one day bestowed upon Biden, the U.S. president would share it with a true friend of America. 

    Ali Khamenei

    Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | AFP via Getty Images

    84-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on all strategic issues in Iran, and his rule has been marked by murderous brutality against opponents. 

    That violence has only escalated in recent years, with mass arrests and the imposition of the death penalty against those protesting his dictatorial rule. A mere middle-ranking cleric in the 1980s, few expected Khamenei to succeed Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader, and he took the top job in hurried, constitutionally dubious circumstances in 1989. 

    A pipe-smoker and player of the tar, a traditional stringed instrument, he was president during the attritional Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and survived a bomb attack against him in 1981 that crippled his arm.

    Thankfully for Khamenei, he doesn’t have the stress of facing elections to wear him down. 

    Robert Mugabe

    President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe | Michael Nagle/Getty Images

    You’ve heard the saying “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” — well, here’s a classic case study. 

    Robert Mugabe’s political career reached soaring heights before crashing to depressing lows, during his nearly four decades ruling over Zimbabwe. He came to power as a champion of the anti-colonial struggle, but his rule descended into authoritarianism — while he oversaw the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy and society. 

    Though Mugabe’s final election win was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and intimidation, the longtime leader chalked up a thumping, landslide victory in 2013, aged 89.  

    He was finally, permanently, removed as leader well into his nineties, during a coup d’etat in 2017. He died two years later. 

    Giorgio Napolitano

    Italian President Giorgio Napolitano | Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

    The former Italian president took his largely symbolic role to new heights when, aged 86, he successfully steered the country through a perilous transition of power in 2011 — closing that particular chapter of Silvio Berlusconi’s story. 

    Operating mostly behind the scenes, Napolitano saw five PMs come and go during his eight-and-a-half years in office, at a time when Italian politics were rife with instability (but hey, what’s new?).

    Reelected against his will in 2013 at 87 — he had wanted to step down, but gave in after a visit from party leaders desperate to put Italy’s political landscape back on an even keel — Napolitano won the nickname “Re Giorgio” (King George) for his statesmanship.

    When he resigned two years later, he said: “Here [in the presidential palace], it’s all very beautiful, but it’s a bit like jail. At home, I’ll be ok, I can go out for a walk.”

    Mahmoud Abbas

    Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    “It has been a very good day,” Javier Solana, the then European Union foreign policy chief, exclaimed when Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

    As a tireless advocate of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas has enjoyed strong backing from the international community.

    But three EU policy chiefs later and with lasting peace no closer, Abbas is still in power, despite most polls showing that Palestinians want him to step aside. 

    His solution for political survival: No presidential elections have been held in the Palestinian Territories since that historic ballot in 2005, with the Palestinian leadership blaming either Israel or the prospect of rising Hamas influence for the postponement of elections.

    While Abbas seems to have found a solution for political survival, the physical survival of the 87-year-old chain smoker is now being called into question.

    William Gladstone

    William Ewart Gladstone | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    Queen Victoria reportedly described Gladstone as a “half-mad firebrand” — and you’d have to be to chase a fourth term as prime minister aged 82. 

    At that point Gladstone had already outlived Britain’s life expectancy at the time by decades. 

    During his career, Gladstone expanded the vote for men — but failed to pass a system of home rule in Ireland, and he was slammed for alleged inaction to help British soldiers who were slaughtered in the Siege of Khartoum. 

    Gladstone was Britain’s oldest-ever prime minister when he eventually stepped down at 84 — and no one has beaten that record since. Similarly, no one has served more than his four (nonconsecutive) terms. 

    But should the Tories remain addicted to chaos, who’d bet against Boris Johnson starting his fifth stint as PM in 2049? 

    Ali Walker and Christian Oliver contributed reporting.

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    Wilhelmine Preussen and Nicolas Camut

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  • Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female prime minister

    Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female prime minister

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    ROME — Giorgia Meloni has been named Italy’s first female prime minister at the head of a right-wing government, after holding talks with the country’s president.

    After a week of infighting which overshadowed the negotiations, Meloni’s warring coalition put forward a united front, backing Meloni to lead the country during formal talks with President Sergio Mattarella, on Friday.

    Later on Friday Mattarella asked Meloni to form a government. 

    Meloni, after arriving for talks in a Fiat 500, accepted unconditionally, a spokesman for the president’s office said. The right-wing coalition emerged triumphant from the election, with 44 percent of the vote, led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which took 26 percent.

    But even before a government could be cobbled together, rivalry emerged inside the coalition, with allies arguing over Meloni’s unwillingness to accommodate Silvio Berlusconi’s preferred nominations in her cabinet.

    At the opening of the new parliament, Berlusconi, leader of the Forza Italia party, said in a note left in public view that he found Meloni “overbearing … domineering … arrogant … offensive.”

    No sooner were peacetalks concluded than Berlusconi was recorded asserting that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and affirming his friendship with Vladimir Putin.

    Meloni replied saying that anyone who did not agree with her pro-Europe, pro-NATO orientation “cannot be part of the government, even if that means not forming the government.”

    Despite the clashes, the right-wingers made up in order to take over as Italy’s new government. Meloni met with the President on Friday alongside her fellow leaders in the right wing bloc, Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, and Berlusconi.

    Meloni is set to name her team on Friday with the new cabinet sworn in on Saturday and a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday.

    Her team must immediately roll up their sleeves, working to deadlines including the Budget, which has to be sent to Europe for approval by the end of the month, and the Recovery Plan, the EU’s post pandemic economic aid program. Some 55 targets and milestones have to be met by the year’s end to unlock almost 20 billion euros in funding for Italy under the program.

    The new government’s priority will be to tackle a cost of living crisis exacerbated by sky-high energy prices and rising interest rates, which weigh on Italy’s heavy public debt.

    Caretaker prime minister Mario Draghi, who was ousted in July, has attempted to smooth the transition, pushing for a cap on energy prices in Europe and setting out the narrow margins for manoeuvre in the budget.

    Draghi, in his last news conference as the head of the Italian government, said: “Italy must be at the centre of the European project with the credibility, authoritativeness and determination fitting of a great country like ours.”

    But Meloni’s new team is likely to struggle to reconcile the expensive electoral promises they made on pensions and tax cuts with the economic reality. A recession is forecast for next year.

    European leaders indicated they were ready to work with Meloni’s government.

    At the end of the European Council in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “We are all together as European nations within the EU and it is essential that we democracies cooperate a great deal.”

    “Every time that there is a change of government because of elections, as [happens] in a democracy, it cannot change the good relations that we have with the other member states or, for example, that we have between Germany and Italy … We will continue to work with very good cooperation between the countries and within the sphere of the European Union.”

    French President Emmanuel Macron said: “I am ready to work with Meloni.” Macron is visiting Rome on Sunday and Monday to meet President Mattarella and Pope Francis, and said he could meet Meloni then, too. “We will see on Monday according to institutional developments, in compliance with protocol,” he said.

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    Hannah Roberts

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