Italy aims at a role as Special Representative on the Southern Front

She starts from the Ukraine Giorgia Meloni , from the "frightening images" of children fleeing from the Kiev children's hospital that demonstrate - says the premier in Washington for the NATO summit - what is "the real will to seek a peaceful solution" on the part of Vladimir Putin as claimed by "some Russian propaganda". Words directed at Moscow and its friends among which there is no shortage of European ones, such as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who, wearing the guise of the Union's rotating president, met first Putin and then Xi Jinping and who gave birth to the Patriots' group in which the 30 MPs of Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National and Matteo Salvini's Lega League also joined on Monday and where the different attitude towards the tsar stands out among the traits d'union.

But to those who point out to her the 'pro-Putin' posture of the newborn formation, Meloni replies by claiming that it is a 'reconstruction by observers'. Beyond the expressions, however, the distance between the premier and the Patriots, who have just slipped her third place in the Europarliament from the right, is clear.

It is no coincidence that Matteo Salvini has returned to the charge against arms to Ukraine. "As long as they are sent, the war will continue," said the vice-premier just as the Prime Minister from Washington - along with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Defence Minister Guido Crosetto - reiterated Italy's full support for Kiev. Supplies to Ukraine are at the centre of the summit where the Prime Minister is also counting on focusing attention on the Mediterranean front. The goal is for Italy to be entrusted with the role of Special Representative of the NATO Secretary General for the South. This is a goal that Meloni is convinced she can achieve despite competition from Spain and above all from Emmanuel Macron's France, with which relations are at rock bottom and which will most likely skip the summit to deal with the post-vote situation.

After remaining silent, the premier's comment on the outcome of the elections in France also arrived: 'The reading of a Rn defeat is a bit simplistic because the truth is that no one can sing victory' because no one 'is able to govern alone', unlike in Italy where the government counts on a 'solid' majority. 'I can say from personal experience,' he added, 'that it is easier to govern when you are together because you share ideas rather than when you are together because you share an enemy'.

Meanwhile, negotiations with Brussels continue. No one as yet knows whether or not Meloni will ultimately support Ursula von der Leyen's encore. The outgoing Commission president would badly need Fdi's 24 votes to pass the 18 July examination in the Strasbourg plenary. A yes, however, which is far from a foregone conclusion at the moment.