circleWhen Giorgia Meloni met with Joe Biden at the White House in March, he played Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” as she walked into the room. “We have each other’s backs,” he later told reporters, before tenderly kissing her on the forehead at the end of the meeting.
The harmonious meeting was the clearest sign yet that the Italian prime minister, a master of chameleon-like communication, has managed to forge a warm relationship with a U.S. president who has previously expressed concerns about the neo-fascist history of her Italian Brothers party.
The two men are due to meet again among the olive groves of a remote resort in the southern Italian region of Puglia on Thursday, when Italy hosts the G7 summit as Europe reels from gains by far-right parties in European elections. Meloni hopes to use the event to bolster his image on the international stage, despite criticism at home for his hardline stance on a host of issues.
“This time, all eyes are really on her,” said Francesco Gaglietti, founder of Rome-based political consultancy Policy Sonar. “Everyone is [French president] With Emmanuel Macron [German chancellor] Olaf Scholz is gone, or at least undergoing some pretty major maintenance. Meloni is the host… but he’ll have some pretty big demands.”
The Italian Brotherhood gained new strength in Sunday’s European elections, winning nearly 29% of the vote, up from just over 6% in 2019. Meloni has already visited the Borgo Egnasia resort, frequented by celebrities such as Madonna and David Beckham, with his seven-year-old daughter, armed with topical documents on world conflicts, Africa, the rise of AI, the climate crisis and migration.
The resort, which opened in 2010, is modeled after Puglia’s ancient villages, with its stone villas full of almond baskets and narrow, winding alleys. “When you enter Borgo Egnazia, you feel like you’ve traveled back in time,” says Dario Iaia, Puglia’s Italian compatriot councillor. “It’s an environment that preserves the history of Puglia’s traditions.” But the brochure says the land on which the resort is built is Destroyed Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime built the airbase.
Since taking power, Ms Meloni has worked hard to cultivate a moderate and respected image abroad, soothing her doubters while influencing key leaders such as Mr Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. At the same time, she has maintained close ties to far-right allies around the world, joining a chorus that lambasted socialism and “massive illegal immigration” at Vox’s “Great Patriots Rally” in Spain in May.
Ms. Meloni’s staunch support for Ukraine against Russia has won her the backing of Western allies, but the G7 will be a test of her Atlanticism, especially as Italy will be expected to help resolve the contentious issue of how to use the profits generated from confiscated Russian assets to serve Kiev’s interests.
“When she was new to the job, [former PM] “She has said the right things with Mario Draghi,” Gaglietti said, “but now she has war fatigue, she was hesitant to use Italian ammunition to attack Russian targets, and now she has the big problem of Russian sanctions… It remains to be seen whether she will stay true to her original Atlanticist claims or whether she was bluffing all along.”
Behind the scenes, Meloni, who chairs the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), a party that largely represents Europe’s far-right, is expected to use the G7 to plot his next move in Brussels. Some speculate he will wait to see how well far-right leader Marine Le Pen fare in France’s general election before deciding whether to support von der Leyen for a second term. Meloni has previously resented being compared to Le Pen, but the two have grown closer in recent times, and Italian reports this week hinted that they are plotting to move the EU further to the right.
“Alliances are now taking shape in Europe and Meloni is using the G7 as a key player in this,” said Nadia Urbinati, a political scientist at Columbia University in New York and the University of Bologna.
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“It’s not hard to create an international image. You just need to travel the world, meet the right people and smile. But at home her policies are dictatorial. This is what only we see, not the outside world.”
Urbinati points to Meloni’s policies towards the LGBTQ+ community and those that have undermined abortion rights, as well as the government’s alleged silencing of critics and control over state media.
“She has a controlling mindset and treats us like subjects to be governed,” she said.
Besides Italy, the summit traditionally includes leaders from the US, Canada, Britain, Japan, France, Germany and the EU, but Meloni made an unusual move by extending invitations to several other countries, including Ukraine, Turkey, India, Argentina, Brazil, Algeria and Kenya. Saudi Arabia, which has often been criticized for its human rights violations, will be attending a G7 summit for the first time. Pope Francis, who is leading the discussion on AI, will be guest of honor.
“The list is long because from the very beginning our prime minister has played a key role in the international perspective,” Iaia said. “She has been the protagonist of a great dialogue, not only with European countries, but with other countries around the world.”
Meloni has cultivated ties with Trump’s Republican allies over the years, so while she will shine alongside Biden at the G7, she will likely be looking forward to Trump’s return in November, Urbinati said. “Her relationship with Biden is temporary, simply because she is the prime minister of Italy and he is in the White House. It has nothing to do with political positions. Meloni remains a Trump supporter.”
