Giorgia Meloni has been hoping to bump into Joe Biden all day. She even waited for him for more than an hour on the tarmac at Polish airport in Rzeszow on February 20. But the American president, back from kyiv, did not take the time to stop to meet the Italian Prime Minister, who was visiting the two countries at the same time. She had to settle for a simple phone call. For the 50-year-old, this trip was to be an opportunity to pose as an integrated leader in the concert of nations and to reaffirm her Atlanticism. The ace. She must be content with the photo of her meeting with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, white turtleneck for her and military uniform for him.
The challenge remained essential: to convince of the sincerity of his support for the Ukrainians, despite the pro-Russian positions of his allies Matteo Salvini – his Minister of Transport, opposed to arms deliveries to Ukraine – and Silvio Berlusconi. “Me, talking with Zelensky? If I were President of the Council, I wouldn’t have gone there. I judge this gentleman very, very negatively,” said the Cavaliere on February 12. These two men represent cannonballs for the President of the Council, outside the Italian borders, but she cannot do without them inside, even if Giorgia Meloni was well ahead of them in the elections of September 2022. To govern, the Roman now has many faces, like a chameleon.
Since moving to Palazzo Chigi five months ago, Giorgia Meloni has had a tough profile in Italy on security and migration issues. But when it comes to addressing its European neighbors and economic players, the post-fascist struggles to reassure, putting on the costume of a reasonable centre-right. By choosing as Minister for European Affairs the former President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia), and the very Atlanticist Giancarlo Giorgetti (League) as Minister for the Economy, she sent a clear message to Brussels: no question of demand a change in the rules of the game. For her debut, the newcomer is more gentle than Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (whom she no longer presents as a model); less provocative than Matteo Salvini; less Eurosceptic than Giuseppe Conte, his predecessor, fellow traveler of the 5 Star Movement.
European molt, really?
His campaign promises – to thoroughly review the conditions for using the European recovery plan – have been scaled back. Giorgia Meloni wanted to reassure on his ability to follow the roadmap established by his predecessor, Mario Draghi, a true icon in Brussels, in terms of reducing deficits and structural reforms. An absolute necessity if the Italian wants to benefit from the some 200 billion euros promised to her country as part of the recovery plan. “In the tradition of Brussels, the actors who play the game are integrated”, notes David Carretta, journalist at Radio Radicale. The one who has been covering the mysteries of Europe for twenty-four years draws a parallel: “In Italy, we use the expression “Romanize the barbarians”. In Europe, we try to “Europeanize” the eurosceptics. This is what is happening with Giorgia Meloni.”
Normalized, Giorgia Meloni? It would be a mistake to believe that the Romaine would have accomplished its federalist “transformation”. L’Express attended its second European Council on 9 and 10 February in Brussels. As soon as she arrives at this meeting of Heads of State and Government, where Volodymyr Zelensky was received with great fanfare, Giorgia Meloni presents her head from the bad days, frowning and staring hard. “I did not find the meeting appropriate”, she attacks, barely arrived, about the dinner organized the day before in Paris, between the Ukrainian, Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The episode awakens an old scar in the peninsula: the (founded) feeling of not being sufficiently associated with the Franco-German couple. The Italian’s reaction would almost make Emmanuel Macron’s advisers, present in the corridors of the Council, smile. “We did not even consider inviting him, to be perfectly honest, slips a diplomat. If Mrs. Meloni had come, perhaps the Spanish Prime Minister would have been embarrassed or the Dutch Prime Minister would have wanted to be there. ” Way to relegate the third economic power of the euro zone among the average powers of the continent.
post-fascist instinct
If Giorgia Meloni does not get angry, it is because she knows that the casting would have been different with her predecessor, Mario Draghi. Wasn’t the former chairman of the council present on the train traveling to Ukraine alongside Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz on June 16, 2022? The former ECB President played a major role in European support for Kyiv. “When Meloni feels excluded, her post-fascist nationalist instinct comes out and she attacks. Her reaction against Emmanuel Macron was dictated by anger”, analyzes David Carretta. During the family photo which brings together the Twenty-Seven, Macron and Meloni ostensibly ignore each other, proof of a manifest tension. “It does not show the limits of Giorgia Meloni, but the limits of European unity. What gives the legitimacy of a leader is the weight of his country, his stability in power and the number of votes he has. has! Mario Draghi had the authority, but what was his political weight? confides to us the Italian ambassador to the European institutions, Pietro Benassi, at the bends of an alley. One way to interpret the Macron-Meloni conflict as caused solely by the French president’s desire to pull the blanket to himself.
Giorgia Meloni (in red) and Emmanuel Macron alongside the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, before a European summit in Brussels, February 9, 2023.
© / Dursun Aydemir / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP
In less than six months, it is already the second storm to have broken out with France, after the episode ofOcean Viking, in November 2022. The French executive had then had a hard time having to open the port of Toulon to the migrant boat after Italy’s refusal to welcome the ship, yet in its territorial waters. In the past, when she was only a simple opponent, Giorgia Meloni often reserved her arrows for the French neighbor, whom she regularly accuses of adopting a moral posture on the subject of migrants or of conducting a neocolonialist policy in Africa. The one who describes the Eiffel Tower as “a heap of iron” reacts epidermically when it comes to France.
Changing Europe from within
Is Giorgia Meloni the Atlanticist really soluble in the Union? Be careful not to misunderstand. “His goal remains to change Europe from within,” warns historian specializing in the peninsula Marc Lazar. Voluntarily reassuring and discreet, La Romaine is counting on the European elections of 2024 to reverse the balance of power in Brussels, if the ballot were to confirm the dynamics of the conservative and identity rights. Today registered in the group of European conservatives (ECR), which occupies a marginal position, the Italian dreams of overturning existing alliances by joining forces with the right of the European People’s Party (EPP) to stimulate a conservative turn in the Old Continent. A revolutionary-looking adage in a Europe accustomed to governing from the center, through compromises between the center right, the center left and the liberals.
“If Giorgia Meloni confirms its normalization, in the name of what could we prevent an alliance with the EPP? I do not see why”, estimates Bruno Retailleau, who chairs the LR group in the Senate and is among the relatives of François-Xavier Bellamy , the leader of LR in Brussels. The Italian example also makes the far right dream: the president of the RN Jordan Bardella is openly inspired by the Italian when he tries to influence the discourse on Ukraine of his movement. “He is completely fascinated by her,” slips a Lepenist MEP. At Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête, the Italian has acquired the status of icon, whose name is mentioned in each interview to convince of the effectiveness of the union of rights. “His approach to gathering and alliances is an example,” admits MEP Nicolas Bay. The vice-president of the movement even instructed his teams to write a note, to list the actions of his inspiration.
The former admirer of Mussolini did not become a centrist. On the national scene, the self-proclaimed “patriot” presents a tougher face and embodies a severe right. “Giorgia Meloni needs to display the colors of her radical identity to keep her credit”, notes Claudio Tito, one of the great feathers of the daily La Repubblica. His justice reform, his decree to prohibit rave parties (forced to be reviewed by the government because unconstitutional) or its desire to reform the Constitution to move towards a presidential regime are all markers of the right. “It is law and order“, law and order, dear to former US President Donald Trump, sums up Marc Lazar.
Winning formula
For the moment, the formula is winning. His popularity – confirmed by all the polling institutes – was confirmed at the polls during the partial regional elections in mid-February, where his coalition came out on top in Lombardy and Lazio. Two symbolic regions, with Milan, the economic capital, and Rome, its administrative and historical counterpart, from where the head of government takes her guttural accent. During this first electoral test, Giorgia Meloni also confirmed his domination over his two partners, the League and Forza Italia.
How far will she go? The blessed era of the state of grace, reputed to last six months in Italy, is coming to an end. Unfortunately for Giorgia Meloni, this truce was shattered on the waves of Calabria, in the small seaside resort of Cutro, where 88 migrants were killed when a boat from Turkey sank. This disaster – one of the worst since the start of the migrant crisis in 2015 – plunged the head of the Italian government into her first turmoil. His long silence was perceived as a lack of humanity and a political error, while the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, went there himself, and Pope Francis himself split his a strong message. The extraordinary council of ministers, organized on March 10 in Cutro, to try to escape criticism, did not calm the situation. On the way to the blue sedans carrying Giorgia Meloni and her teams, demonstrators threw stuffed animals, like those that adorn the coffins of the 35 dead children. Obviously uncomfortable in the face of questions from journalists, the head of government has multiplied the announcements, including a strengthening of sanctions against smugglers but also a toughening of asylum and reception conditions, like her insistently asked his ally Matteo Salvini.
Dividing image
What dent his image, already divisive. The boss of Fratelli d’Italia is currently benefiting from the weakness of her opponents and competitors. The Berlusconian right never ceases to sink, mired in the pro-Russian declarations of its leader. Matteo Salvini, who has no choice but to be ever harder to stand out, locks himself into a radical role. On the left, the Democratic Party, which has lost six million voters in fifteen years, is mired in internal power struggles. Will its new president Elly Schlein be able to reverse the trend? The surprise election of this 37-year-old bisexual feminist on February 26 caused a wave of enthusiasm in a camp used to gloom. But nothing that can disturb for the moment the serenity of Giorgia Meloni, who is about to celebrate her six months in power. “I’m here for five years,” she promises regularly, without anyone thinking of contradicting her. In an Italy marked by governmental instability, this is undoubtedly his first victory.