Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke with President Biden this week and called for an end to illegal immigration, amid criticism from voters that he had deviated from the tougher stance he advocated during the campaign.
“I was just at the White House reading the comments below. [my reporting]Stefano Vacara, founder of La Voce di New York and U.S. political correspondent for Italpress, told Fox News Digital: “Many voters who supported her are now saying, ‘I don’t want her anymore.’ I will not vote for that,” he wrote. He said that’s because “she gets along well with Biden.”
“I mean, you were in a position in a far-right party… and you’re the prime minister of a NATO country and you go to the Oval Office… you can no longer speak like you used to speak. “I did,” he claimed. “She’s completely changed, so now…someone will wake up today and say listen to her speech and the way she speaks. [they would] I think she’s centrist or centre-left. ”
Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, met with Biden on Friday to discuss a number of foreign policy issues, including Ukraine, Gaza and immigration. During her campaign, Vaccara portrayed Meloni as a staunch anti-globalist, but after the national conservative, right-wing populist Italian Brothers party won the election, she became more of a globalist on most issues. took a position. .
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“There’s a very famous phrase she said during her campaign: ‘I’m Giorgia. I’m a mother. I’m a Catholic and I’m a patriot,'” Vacara said. It seemed like a sign of being very conservative.”
“In foreign policy, when she was in the opposition, she was really anti-European, saying, ‘He’s great.’ [on] Bureaucracy, when I’m in government, you know what I’m going to do’ – you know, all these things,” he explained.
On March 1, 2024, President Joe Biden meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
But after coming to power, “she became a very stable partner, both for Europe and for America, so she didn’t do any of the things she was saying when she was complaining,” Vacara said. he said.
German outlet DW questioned how “radical” Meloni’s stance has been since taking power in Rome, repeating none of the “more radical slogans she favored during the campaign”. I pointed out that it was not.
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DW said Meloni had sought to shape domestic policy around “strict and conservative family ideals”, but economic policy “more or less inherited” those enacted by his predecessor, and European policy ” He acknowledged that he had proven to be “mostly moderate.”
During the meeting, Mr. Meloni and Mr. Biden reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression, and Mr. Biden also agreed to join the G7 and European Union, which began in January, to strengthen support for Ukraine. He praised Meloni’s leadership in the Union.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (left) and US President Joe Biden react during the launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance at the G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9, 2023. (Evelyn Hochstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Most strikingly, Meloni said he supports the US role in mediating the Gaza crisis, reaffirming Israel’s commitment to its right of self-defense “in accordance with international law” and “increasing the provision of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.” It emphasized the urgent need.” across Gaza, according to a statement from the White House.
Mr. Meloni has also continued to maintain large numbers of migrants on the Italian border in the media, with stricter immigration laws, restrictions on sea rescue charities, and plans to build migrant reception camps in Albania to increase illegal immigration from North Africa. He repeatedly promised to crack down on the issue.
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Last year, the prime minister lied about his age to benefit from a “protection system” for foreigners legally residing in Italy and unaccompanied minors if they were deemed a threat to public order or national security. announced that immigrants would be deported.
But at the end of the year, Meloni told reporters at a press conference that although the EU’s agreement on migration and refugee treaties had partially improved the situation in Italy and other refugee-hosting countries, there was still no solution to the growing number of migrant arrivals. He said that it should not happen.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Council President Charles Michel and Ursula von attend the G7 Joint Support Declaration for Ukraine on the second day of the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 12, 2023. European Commission President Der Leyen. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“What we need to do in Africa is not charity work,” she says. “What we need to do in Africa is to build cooperation and serious strategic relationships as equals, not predators.”
Meloni also stressed the need to “defend the right not to migrate…and this will be realized through investment and strategy.”
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Italy has announced plans for Africa with the so-called Mattei Plan, named after Enrico Mattei, founder of state oil and gas giant Eni, which aims to address education and training, agriculture, health, water and energy development. This paper outlines the strategies that are being used.
The aim is to turn Italy into an energy hub for transporting natural gas supplies from Africa to the rest of Europe, and Italian energy giant Eni will play a key role in the initiative.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
