Thursday, June 13, 2024, 7:33 p.m.
Giorgia Meloni will hardly forget these days. The Italian Prime Minister is experiencing the sweetest moment of her political career after her resounding victory in the European elections last weekend, in which she achieved 28.8% of the ballots, and now serving as host at the G7 summit , which is celebrated until Saturday in the Apulia region, in the south of the country, as Italy holds the current presidency of the club of liberal democracies. Unlike the rest of the leaders, who arrived at the meeting weighed down by domestic problems, declining polls or after having suffered a setback in the recent elections, Meloni is at the zenith of her popularity, having been the only ruler of one of the great European countries that emerged stronger from the last appointment with the polls.
The G7 summit offers the Italian prime minister a golden opportunity to boost her international profile, establish new contacts and present herself as a reference figure for the conservative galaxy. That is why she took the opportunity to invite the presidents of countries that are not part of the G7, such as Ukraine, Argentina, Brazil, India, Turkey, Algeria and Kenya, in addition to Pope Francis, to the Apulia meeting. Also attending were the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, regular participants in these events. Von der Leyen was precisely the first president whom Meloni received at the luxurious Borgo Egnazia hotel complex, where the summit is being held, and the usual family photo at these meetings was taken. While she waited for the presidents to arrive, the prime minister even joked with the cloud of photojournalists covering the event, taking a selfie with them. Her smile and body language showed that she was delighted with the moment she was living. And there was some leader who made her wait a long time, like the American president, Joe Biden, to whom she jokingly said: “Joe, you’re late. “You’ve made yourself wait!” Biden seemed very tired, so he refused to participate in the gala dinner offered to international leaders by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, at a castle in Brindisi.
As master of ceremonies of the various summit meetings, held around a beautiful olive wood round table, Meloni presented the G7 as an opportunity to confront “global crises”, particularly those that endanger “freedom and democracy”. She did so, however, reaching out to countries that may feel threatened by this appointment of the great liberal democracies, such as Russia or China. “The G7 is not a closed fortress in itself that must be defended from someone, but rather an offer of values that we open to the world to aim for shared development,” she noted in her brief opening speech at the summit.
Meloni took the opportunity to include investments in Africa on the agenda of the Apulia event, one of the pillars of his foreign policy and which he has articulated in the so-called Mattei Plan, with which he aims to reduce the migratory pressure on his country through the Mediterranean. Central. This initiative was applauded by the National Security Advisor of the US Government, Jake Sullivan, who considered it “coherent” with US policy. The Italian Prime Minister also received praise from Von der Leyen, who could need Meloni’s support for her re-election as head of the European Commission.
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