Under Prime Minister Meloni, Rome Emerges as Bridgebuilder Between Europe and America

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni leads the coalition of the peacemakers. Thanks to her efforts — which received a boost from the investiture of Pope Leo XIV — Rome has become the beating heart of international diplomacy.Following the Vatican ceremony, Signora Meloni brought Vice President Vance and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, together for a mini-trilateral summit.In thanking “President Meloni, who has become a good friend,” Mr. Vance declared that he and President Trump “are big fans of yours and of Italy.” What’s more, he continued, “President Meloni has offered — and President Trump and I have accepted — the building of a bridge between Europe and the United States.”And “la costruttrice di ponti,” or bridge builder, is Italy’s president of the Council of Ministers. Signora Meloni’s unflagging support for Ukraine’s beleaguered president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is equaled by her insistence on EU and NATO unity in the face of Russian aggression.From the first hour of her administration, Italy’s prime minister has maintained that the end of the Russo-Ukrainian war is predicated on a unified Western commitment to peace. The coalition of the willing’s proposal for NATO troops in Ukraine was foolishly provocative. Ms. Meloni opposed such a plan outright, which irked France’s neo-Napoleonic lame-duck leader, Emmanuel Macron.Rather than embrace the Italian premier’s call for allied solidarity, the capricious French leader has worked to undermine unity under the guise of big-power diktats. Where Signora Meloni builds bridges, Monsieur Macron erects barriers.Indeed, the Italian prime minister’s exclusion from a recent sidebar meeting in Albania between Mr. Zelensky and the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Poland may have been intentional. Reuters reported how this was “an absence that Italian media has described as a deliberate snub, suggesting that French President Emmanuel Macron had not wanted her involved.”Monsieur Macron’s antipathy to Signora Meloni is well known. Yet his outright disdain for Italy’s first female prime minister is a counterproductive bit of petulance. The current occupant of the Palais de l’Élysée even went so far as to accuse Signora Meloni of spinning a false narrative about the all-male meeting.Signora Meloni is seeking to contain and then end the Russo-Ukrainian war, not widen it. Yet she is fully committed to rearming to protect the peace. Earlier in May, Bloomberg noted her announcement that Italy will indeed reach its 2 percent defense spending target by the end of 2025.As Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said: “It’s a direct response to calls from the United States — which are legitimate. When they say they can’t be the only ones responsible for Europe’s security, they are right.”And in a recent Question Time session in the Italian senate, Signora Meloni vowed that ”Italy and Europe must strengthen their defensive capabilities” because “freedom has a price — and if you make someone else pay for your safety, you are not the one who fully decides your destiny.”Germany’s newly elected chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who had journeyed to Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass, met with Signora Meloni at Palazzo Chigi. And in keeping with the premier’s imperative, he reminded the Western alliance that Italy “must play a role” in forging peace between Ukraine and Russia.Moreover, in addition to lauding Italy as an “indispensable strategic partner” and citing Rome’s importance as the Continent’s second-largest manufacturing power, Herr Merz declared most emphatically: “We won’t be hitting the brakes any more when it comes to solving the European Union’s problems.”Herr Merz isn’t the only world leader to recognize Italy’s centrality to the West. Prior to his two-hour telephone conversation with President Putin on May 19, Mr. Trump spoke to all the key allied leaders, a discussion that included Signora Meloni. And following the call to Moscow, Potus 47 dialed the bridge-building Signora Meloni. Thanks to her deft diplomacy vis-à-vis Europe, the United States, and the Vatican, Mr. Trump is now amenable to a peace conference at the Holy See.

Under Prime Minister Meloni, Rome Emerges as Bridgebuilder Between Europe and America

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