Meloni insists: “I do not regret having been close to Donald Trump”

“I do not regret having been very close to President Trump at the start of his second term.” This is what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says in Bruno Vespa’s new book – Storia della Seconda Repubblica: Da Berlusconi a Meloni, da Prodi a Schlein – due to be published on 2 November. In the previews, the Prime Minister discusses her relationship with the White House occupant, explaining that her decisions were made to “defend the national interest”. In August, however, she had admitted in an interview with the New York Times that “I thought it would be easier with Trump”. 

"I also had a good relationship with Joe Biden, and I was criticised for that too," adds the Prime Minister. “All the more reason why it was natural to work towards building an even closer relationship with the United States once Donald Trump was elected.” According to Meloni: “The United States is our most important geopolitical and military ally, the main non-European market for our products, home to a very large and hard-working Italian community, and much more besides.”

So, Meloni explains: “That closeness was truly useful and also greatly appreciated by many European governments because it helped to keep the Euro-Atlantic dialogue open even at times of greatest misunderstanding, and also to bring complex issues such as Greenland and Arctic security back into the proper framework, that of NATO. All of these things are beneficial to Italy, Europe and the West. All of these are things I stand by and would do again".