(Headline USA) President Joe Biden was set for talks with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday, welcoming the leader who has won praise from the U.S. administration for her strong backing of the U.S.-led effort to assist Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s invasion.
That was unlikely to do her any favors, however, with her voting base, who elected Meloni as a repudiation of the corrupt globalism and wokeness that has swept both western Europe and the United States, with the Biden administration being its main ringleader.
Meloni rose to power last year as the head of Italy’s first conservative government since the end of World War II.
This is Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
I’ve never heard any politician so perfectly explain what we’re up against and why we fight.
When you watch this video, you’ll quickly realize why the establishment is afraid of her.
pic.twitter.com/CswR8o3mjg— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 26, 2022
Her stirring public addresses—condeming the anti-family culture of Italy’s prior government and those like it throughout Europe—offered a small glimmer of hope for common-sense conservatives while triggering leftists who responded with unhinged profanities.
But their concerns about her ideology have been eased by her support for Ukraine.
Meloni’s plans to pull back from Italy’s participation in China’s infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative also fall in line with U.S. priorities, despite the Biden family’s close personal business ties to the CCP.
Meloni’s visit comes as Italy prepares to take up the presidency next year of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.
White House officials said that in addition to discussing Ukraine and China, the two leaders were expected to discuss migration from North Africa to Europe’s southern shores. More than 1,900 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean so far this year, bringing the total of dead and missing since 2014 to 27,675, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“On issues of foreign policy, there’s been a lot of overlapping and mutually reinforcing approaches that we’re taking on with Italy,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “Italy is a NATO ally and they are a very competent NATO ally and they’ve been a tremendous supporter of Ukraine.”
The Biden administration viewed Meloni’s predecessor, economist and former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, as an intellectual force and one of its strongest allies in Europe. Soon after Meloni’s victory last September, Biden warned about the rise of hard-right populism in Europe and in the United States.
“You just saw what’s happened in Italy in that election,” Biden said in an address to the Democratic Governors Association after Meloni’s victory last September. “You’re seeing what’s happening around the world. And the reason I bother to say that is we can’t be sanguine about what’s happening here either.”
The Brothers of Italy party, which she co-founded more than a decade ago and named after the first words of Italy’s national anthem, emerged as the largest vote-getter in the September 2022 elections.
Domestically, Meloni has made some progress in advancing her pro-family agenda. She directed city halls stop automatically registering both parents in same-sex couples but instead limit recognition of parental rights only to the biological parent of the child.
However, she has proven to be a disappointment by failing to live up to her promise in other areas, such as immigration.
When Meloni ran for premier, she called for a naval blockade of northern Africa to thwart smugglers’ boats overcrowded with migrants determined to reach Europe’s southern shores. But once in office, she quickly dropped talk of any blockade.
On the eve of Meloni’s visit, the White House sought to stress the U.S. and Italy’s close cooperation on Ukraine.
Kirby noted that Meloni has been one of the European Union’s most vocal supporters of Ukraine’s sovereignty, and Italy has hosted some 170,000 Ukrainians who have fled the war. Meloni has also been a champion of a stronger NATO and views the trans-Atlantic alliance as the linchpin of traditionally strong U.S.–Italian relations.
“From a foreign policy lens, the Biden administration sees this is better than what they could have possibly expected or hoped for,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Meloni has also expressed skepticism about Italy’s ties with China through the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2019, Italy became the first and only G7 nation to join China’s ambitious infrastructure building effort, despite objections from the United States.
The project was launched by Beijing in 2013 by President Xi Jinping to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. The ambition for the project has expanded to Africa, Oceania and Latin America, significantly broadening China’s economic and political influence. Italy must either renew or abandon the accord by early next year.
Kirby called Italy’s decision on whether to stay in Belt and Road a “sovereign decision” but added that “it’s becoming increasingly obvious that more and more countries around the world are seeing the risks, and quite frankly lack of reward for economic partnerships with China.”
Before her White House meeting, Meloni headed to the U.S. Capitol to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other lawmakers. She also is scheduled to meet with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
