Trump and Meloni – friendship over?
US President Donald Trump has hit back at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after she described his tirade against Pope Leo XIV as "unacceptable". Trump replied saying: "She is the one who is unacceptable, because she doesn't care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance!"
Rid of an intolerable burden
The break with Trump was foreseeable, argues La Stampa:
“Donald Trump's disparaging remarks have ended a personal relationship with the American president that had become an intolerable burden and posed a growing threat to her approval ratings. This comes as no surprise. The prime minister had probably anticipated a reaction like this two days earlier and ultimately decided that it would be more beneficial for herself, for her party and for the entire centre-right camp to publish the statement defending Pope Leo's moral authority and to draw a line under relations with the White House. The break came suddenly but had been building up for some time – at least on Rome's side.”
Welcome to the club
La Vanguardia sees Italy's prime minister on the path to independence:
“Meloni decided yesterday to terminate a defence agreement with Israel and then threw her weight behind Pope Leo XIV. ... For a few hours, the Italian prime minister turned into a Pedro Sánchez. ... Welcome to the club. ... What was striking was that the other political parties all rallied behind her. ... The Pope summed it up nicely when he set aside his usual caution to express his opposition to the war and to reaffirm that he was 'not afraid of the Trump administration'. Clearly Meloni is not afraid either, which is why she has changed course.”
Shift towards a united Europe?
Meloni needs to make up her mind, La Repubblica states:
“Meloni's influence in Europe has been dramatically reduced over the past 48 hours, for two reasons ... Firstly, Orbán's defeat and the row with Trump have robbed Brussels of any reason to look to Rome and think, 'Giorgia, you talk to him.' Secondly, the referendum defeat and the approaching end of her term in office have weakened the other pillar of Meloni's credibility: the stability of the government. There remains an alternative path – a vision in which the prime minister's interests converge with those of the nation: a genuine shift towards a united Europe, which would mean abandoning the outdated defence of the right of veto and restoring Rome to its rightful place – at the forefront of the integration process.”