Macron, reconciliation dinner with Giorgia Meloni
The French President Emmanuel Macron will travel during Tuesday afternoon in Rome for a meeting and a dinner with the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni, in an attempt to overcome the existing disagreements, given that the dialogue went in a complicated way between the two leaders, often in rivalry positions.
Italy is an ‘important partner’ with a crucial role to play in European decisions’, especially in the Ukrainian conflict, explained the French presidency, indicating that Emmanuel Macron had the initiative of this visit. « The meeting should allow us to check if we are really able to advance together in essential problems, » the Elysee Palace added.
An Italian government source said that Rome hopes ‘the foundation of a new consolidation’ between the two countries ‘in the front line on the different fronts of international policy’.
Giorgia Meloni acknowledged on Friday the existence of ‘divergences’ with Paris, minimizing them and infirm any ‘personal problem’ with Emmanuel Macron.
« There is a lot of taping on this subject, » she ironized, saying she is ‘very happy’ of this visit.
The will displayed on one side and the other is therefore to flatten the disagreements, AFP remarks. However, Macron’s visit will take place in a discreet atmosphere. From Rome, its advertising is minimal: no public appearance of the two leaders in front of the cameras and no press statement.
From 2022, the year of the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, a pro-European progressive, and the electoral victory of the nationalist Giorgia Meloni to lead a coalition between the right and the extreme right, the relations between Paris and Rome were no longer simple.
But the common interests, starting with the unconditional support for Ukraine, have long allowed to overcome the two divergent visions on Europe, especially since the Italian prime minister, the leader of a post-fascist extraction party, has chosen to exert his influence in Brussels than to be upset about European institutions.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January disrupted these balances.
« There is an undeniable rivalry, » says Marc Lazar, a teacher at Sciences in Paris. Macron and Meloni have adopted ‘different strategies’ compared to the US president: ‘mediation and compromise’ from the Italian prime minister, ‘firmness without breaking’ from the French president, comments this specialist in Franco-Italian relations.
The Italian government believes that, as it is ideologically close to the American administration, it will be able to cause it to take a step back on customs duties’.
However, the French side insists that the commercial negotiations are the responsibility of the European Commission, as if they would deny the role of true mediator of Giorgia Meloni.
On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron imposed that the European leader in the Ukrainian file, very frequently talking to Donald Trump, based on the relationship created during the first term of the Republican billionaire at the White House.
And Macron’s will to create a ‘coalition of volunteers’ prepared to provide ‘security guarantees’ or even conduct troops there in a future peace agreement with Russia disturbed the understanding that existed until recently between Rome and Paris on this topic.
In recent weeks, the visit to the Kiev of the French president with the British, German and Polish leaders – but without Giorgia Meloni – and then the re -editing of this format in the margin of a European summit in Albania, revealed the disputes.
« Between Europeans, the problem of formats must be managed according to the principle: the best possible impact according to circumstances, » says Elysee Palace.
On the merits, France emphasizes that Italy, like others, has always ‘insisted’ on ‘participation in this device’.
In fact, according to Marc Lazar, French diplomats minimize the role of Italy, starting from the fact that France is a nuclear power, which is part of the UN Security Council and is therefore less dependent on the US.
Convergences on this sensitive subject is announced difficult to achieve, especially since an Emmanuel Macron counselor rejected the Italian proposal to grant Ukraine the protection provided by Article 5 of the NATO treaty without inviting it to the North Atlantic Alliance, to bypass the Russian and American opposition.
« It is a formula that is undoubtedly deserving to be discussed, but which is obviously difficult to implement, as the Trump administration refuses to access Ukraine at the North Atlantic Alliance precisely because it does not want to implement Article 5 for the benefit of Ukraine, » this counselor said.
