At the January 2025 inauguration of United States President Donald Trump, only one European leader was on the guest list \u2013 Giorgia Meloni, Italy\u2019s right-wing prime minister. The month before, she had been pictured holding an intimate tete-a-tete with Trump in the dining room of the Elysee Palace, where France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron was hosting a celebration for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.<\/p>\n
From the very start of Trump\u2019s second term as US president, Meloni \u2013 once at the fringe of Italian politics with her particular brand of neoliberalist, far-right views \u2013 was seen as the \u201cchosen one\u201d, the European leader Trump said he could work with to \u201cstraighten out the world a little bit\u201d. He affectionately referred to her as \u201ca real live wire\u201d during her visit to the White House in April last year \u2013 once again, the first European leader to make the trip after Trump announced sweeping global trade tariffs.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Meloni lapped it up. Presenting herself to the world as the only European who could de-escalate Trump\u2019s trade war, she called him a \u201cbrilliant man\u201d and asserted that, with him, she would \u201cmake the West great again\u201c.<\/p>\n A little over a year later, that bonhomie now stands punctured \u2013 with Trump\u2019s war on Iran the trigger.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we don\u2019t agree, we must say it. And this time, we do not agree,\u201d she said last weekend, of the US-Israeli war on Iran, during her visit to the Gulf region \u2013 the first by a Western leader since the start of the war.<\/p>\n Along with the Italian authorities\u2019 refusal to allow US bombers to refuel at a military base in southern Italy a week before, Meloni\u2019s words were the starkest sign yet that she is finally saying \u201cNo\u201d to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wanted to play the role of the bridge between Trump and European allies, and this initially looked like a good idea,\u201d said Roberto D\u2019Alimonte, a professor of political science at Luiss University in Rome. \u201cBut today it has become a liability and she is trying to correct this.\u201d<\/p>\n With the start of the US-Israeli war in Iran, Meloni\u2019s delicate balancing act of appeasing Trump while dealing with the political and economic fallout of a war over which the country had not been consulted quickly became a major headache.<\/p>\n Polls show that a solid majority<\/a> of Italians are against the war in Iran, particularly as a result of soaring energy prices it has triggered, and the proportion of those who hold a positive view of Trump has plunged from 35 to 19 percent<\/a>. Meloni faces key elections in Italy next year, analysts note, so this cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n Last month, voters turned out in large numbers to reject a referendum on judicial reform proposed by Meloni, in a poll which analysts say was more about expressing disapproval for Meloni and her unwavering support for an increasingly erratic American president.<\/p>\n Voters aged 18-34 voted against her proposals by 61 percent. It was the first big defeat for Meloni, who, since coming to power, has led a largely stable coalition \u2013 unusual for typically turbulent Italian politics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result of the referendum is partly to be attributed to the fact that many young people voted against it, not so much because of the merits of the referendum\u2019s object but because of the situation in the Middle East, her lack of clear criticism towards Trump\u2019s world vision that relies on force rather than the rule of law \u2013 these people went to the polls,\u201d said Ettore Greco, vice president of the Rome-based think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI).<\/p>\n The war in Iran is not just a political matter for Italy \u2013 there are major economic concerns as well.<\/p>\n The country is especially vulnerable to the increase in energy prices due to the ongoing conflict that is rattling markets across Europe. After Germany, Italy is the European Union\u2019s second-largest natural gas consumer, relying on the fuel for about 40 percent of its energy needs. But about a fifth of the world\u2019s energy exports are currently stuck in the Gulf as Iran has brought traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a near-total halt following US-Israeli attacks.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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A crumbling bridge<\/h2>\n
A delicate balance<\/h2>\n