Nato summit, Meloni confirms support for Kiev and berates Salvini

The last face-to-face before leaving Washington was with Volodymyr Zelensky. For Giorgia Meloni, this NATO summit was also an opportunity to confirm 'Italy's clear line to the whole world' on support for Ukraine as well as on the strengthening, including financial, of Defence, despite the fact that from Rome her deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has repeatedly tried to question it. Meloni assures that the majority is 'united'.

The decision to defend Kiev is an integral part of the centre-right's electoral programme and in fact the government 'has fulfilled its commitments with a solidity,' he claims, 'that we have not seen in the majorities that preceded us and that we do not currently see in the opposition. That said, there is no shortage of sticks to Salvini. "We in Ukraine focused on air defence systems, which is the best way to defend an attacked nation. I also say this to those who from various sides say that if you continue to send weapons to Ukraine you are fuelling the war," the Prime Minister added, making explicit reference to what Salvini himself said in recent days.

A duel that is destined to become increasingly acute in the coming months. Not least because the main arena will be in Europe, in Brussels and before that in Strasbourg. The clues are obvious. The birth of the Patriots group founded by Viktor Orban took place at the same time as the trips to Moscow and Beijing made by the Hungarian leader immediately after taking over the rotating presidency of the Union, to which was added on Thursday the one to Trump's Florida residence with the NATO summit (of which Hungary is a member) still in progress. "Political leaders are entitled to meet other leaders, I see nothing strange in that. I don't think it's a mystery that Orban is closer to Trump than to Biden,' plays down the premier, who about the trips to Moscow and Beijing adds: 'If they were initiatives that could bring some glimmer of peace, nothing wrong with that, I would say welcome. But if the next day a hospital with children inside is bombed it seems to me that it shows there is no desire for dialogue on the part of Putin's Russia'.

Now the game is back on in Europe where a crucial week is about to open, culminating on Thursday in the Europarliament's pronouncement on the confirmation of Ursula von der Leyen. Meloni is cautious. She still does not take sides. She stresses that as Prime Minister she will do her utmost to give Italy 'what Italy is due for its weight'. Much will depend on the talks that will be held in the coming hours and on the face-to-face meeting that von der Leyen will have on Tuesday with the Ecr, the Conservative group of which Meloni is leader and which has in Fratelli d'Italia the largest component (24 deputies). Votes that could prove decisive for the outgoing president's encore.

However, Meloni is also in danger. The Patriots - the group founded by Orban and where the MPs of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini also sit with the Spaniards of Vox until recently in Ecr - continue to cannonade Von der Leyen and her supporters. If Meloni on Thursday were among them, the rift with those who are still allies for her would become enormous, even if the premier tries to downplay the extent of it. "The participation and composition of the European groups does not at all prevent there from being good relations and forms of collaboration, as in Italy where the three parties that make up the majority, although they have been together practically for 30 years, have always been in divided groups." True. But it was another world. There was no war on Europe's doorstep, there was no relationship at risk with the United States, and the Italian Prime Minister in any case always sided with the President of the Commission indicated by the European Council. Meloni would be the first not to do so.