Meloni at NATO summit to accredit her leadership on the moderate conservative right

The first item on the agenda of this NATO summit , which will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance, is once again Ukraine. The latest Russian bombing of the Kiev children's hospital on the eve of the Washington summit is yet another confirmation of this. Some wonder whether it would have been there even if Marine Le Pen had won the elections last Sunday.

The framework of alliances is as unstable in Europe as it is in the United States. The prospect of Donald Trump's possible (to date probable) return to the White House cannot fail to cause alarm given his stances on support for Kiev but above all on the threat of American disinterest in its European allies. This is why the outcome of the US elections in November (and even before that the Democratic convention in August which will determine whether Joe Biden will again challenge Trump) and the European elections that are currently being played out in Brussels on the new EU executive, as well as the result of the elections in France, become interconnected variables capable of influencing - in some cases determining - the present and future scenario with which each of the 32 leaders gathered in the US capital are called upon to reckon.

This obviously also applies to Giorgia Meloni. The Italian Prime Minister arrives in Washington just a few hours after the defeat of the Rassemblement National and the constitution of the new group of Patriots in the European Parliament wanted by her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, who in the meantime has his photo taken with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, in which Matteo Salvini's Lega and above all the 30 Lepenist deputies have joined. Two entries, in addition to that of the Spaniard Vox a few days ago, thanks to which the newborn political formation in the Europarliament has ousted from third place precisely the Conservatives of which Meloni is leader.

There are those who argue that the defeat of RN in France was very good news for the Italian premier because it confirms her leadership of the right-wing government that she would probably have lost if Emmanuel Macron had been forced to summon Jordan Bardella to the Elysée Palace to give him the post of prime minister. Moreover, although relations between the French President and the Prime Minister are at a low ebb, on the foreign policy front, support for Ukraine Meloni is closer to Macron than to Le Pen, who has only recently been trying (mainly through Bardella) to soften her ties with the Tsar.

The posture of the Patriots towards Vladimir Putin is indeed very different from that of Meloni. The premier in Washington will reiterate Italy's total support for the Kiev cause but also the need to strengthen the southern front (the Mediterranean) of the Atlantic Alliance, which could entrust precisely Italy with a leading role.