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Hindustan Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Macron to visit Meloni after rivalry creates tension on Ukraine, trade
PARIS/ROME -French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, seeking to improve relations amid tensions between the two European leaders over Ukraine, trade and relations with the United States. Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump, while Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the U.S. president. They have advocated different even competing - approaches to the new Trump era. Meloni, whose country has a large trade surplus with the U.S., has sought to keep Europe aligned with the U.S., using the slogan "Make the West great again" in a meeting with Trump in Washington in April. Macron has pushed for the EU to take a more independent approach. On the Russian war in Ukraine, Meloni has been sceptical about Macron's "coalition of the willing" and a Franco-British plan put forward earlier this year to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement. Sending troops would be deeply unpopular in Italy. Hostility flared publicly in recent weeks, with officials close to Macron and Meloni privately or openly criticising their respective initiatives over Ukraine or trade. Meloni was criticised in Italy for not travelling to Kyiv with Macron and the German, British and Polish leaders on May 10 and then for missing a call with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a summit in Albania a few days later. After Meloni explained her absence by saying the meetings were about sending troops to Ukraine, her government was furious that Macron said publicly that the meetings were about a ceasefire and seemed to equate her justification with "Russian disinformation". French and Italian officials said Macron had taken the initiative to hold Tuesday's meeting and sought to play down talk of a rift, saying the meeting and a working dinner would be an opportunity for Macron to show "respect" and "friendship". "The president is available to all of our European partners, whatever the political persuasion may be," an Elysee official told reporters. The Elysee said the two would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the Mercosur trade deal and U.S. tariffs, as well as industrial cooperation between the two countries, including Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis, which appointed a new Italian chief executive last month. Italian officials said the meeting was meant to "lay the foundations for a further strengthening of relations" and added that talks would also address the situation in the Middle East and Libya. Both Italy and France are worried Russia might boost its presence in eastern Libya, to keep a foothold in the Mediterranean after Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in Syria in December. "This Macron-Meloni meeting isn't about rekindling Franco-Italian friendship. It's about necessity, not nostalgia," said Francesco Galietti of Rome-based consultancy Policy Sonar, saying the two capitals should find common ground on Libya "fast".
The Guardian
26-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Giorgia Meloni faces awkward weekend at funeral of pope whose values she opposed
It is an awkward weekend for Giorgia Meloni. The Italian leader will host a gathering of world leaders to say goodbye to a much-revered pope whose public views – from the treatment of people fleeing war to the climate crisis – were diametrically opposed to hers. While Pope Francis was a staunch advocate for asylum seekers, and blessed the vessels that saved refugees at sea, Meloni once said Italy should 'repatriate migrants back to their countries and then sink the boats that rescued them'. Close allies of Meloni are attending, including the US president, Donald Trump, who Francis sharply criticised for his anti-immigration stance, saying: 'Anyone who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian.' Also flying in is Argentina's president, Javier Milei, who at various times called the pontiff an imbecile and a representative of the 'evil one'. In a joint session of parliament on Wednesday, Meloni cited how the pope 'gave back a voice to those who did not have one'. The words of Italy's prime minister were sharply criticised by opposition parties in parliament. The leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic party, Elly Schlein, said: 'Francis does not deserve the hypocrisy of those who deport migrants, take money from the poor, deny the climate emergency and deny care to those who cannot afford it.' The former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi of Italia Viva was equally scathing. 'It is very funny that each of us seeks to grab a little piece of his legacy,' he said. Addressing the government's members, he added: 'Your detention camps for migrants were a disgrace to Pope Francis.' On big issues, Meloni and the pope could not have been further apart. The climate emergency was for Francis a moral and spiritual crisis demanding a radical and systemic response, whereas for Meloni the ecological transition is subordinate to economic competitiveness and national interest. In economics, the pope denounced the 'culture of waste', criticising a system that values people according to their productivity and calling for an economy in the service of human dignity. Meloni, meanwhile, has abolished subsidies for the poor and cut healthcare. 'There was a huge gap between the two,' said Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a political consultancy in Rome. 'Meloni bet on Atlanticism, on a close rapport with Trump, while Bergoglio [Pope Francis] was by no means pro-American nor a friend of Trump. There was also a divergence in geopolitical vision: Francis pursued a policy of rapprochement with China, whereas under Meloni Italy withdrew from Beijing's ambitious belt and road initiative.' But on a personal level, they appeared to be friendly, even friends. 'Despite this,' Galietti added, 'the friendship between Meloni and the pope was allegedly genuine. They spoke in Spanish and met often. This should come as no surprise: after all, the pope, who grew up under Argentina's Videla dictatorship, was forced to coexist with generals in uniform far to the right of Meloni.' Meloni has long publicised her personal rapport with Francis, frequently citing details of their conversations in public speeches. Many political observers and media outlets described the prime minister's strategy as an 'operazione simpatia', an attempt to win over her electorate by highlighting her friendship with one of the most beloved pontiffs. With the death of Francis, Meloni has lost someone politically, and possibly personally, important to her. 'Francis accepted Meloni's history, her self-portrayal as an underdog,' said Prof Alberto Melloni, a church historian at the University of Modena-Reggio Emilia and the Unesco chair on religious pluralism and peace. 'Once Bergoglio told me he liked the PM because she was 'a woman of the people'.' The professor said the crucial question for Meloni was whether the next leader of the Catholic church would also play a useful role. 'If the pope does not sympathise with them, he won't let them off so lightly.'
