Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has publicly distanced herself from President Trump, criticizing his military actions in Iran and declining to participate in mine sweeping operations in the Strait of Hormuz, due to the unpopularity of Trump and his policies in Italy. Source link
It was on a government plane somewhere between Verona and Rome that Itay‘s PM Giorgia Meloni learned that US President Donald Trump had called her “unacceptable”. Her aides had flagged an interview the US president had given to Corriere della Sera published on April 14. She read it. Then, according to the Italian daily’s account, the far-right PM settled on a line she had already used that afternoon: “Being allies does not mean there are no red lines, and it certainly does not mean being vassals or subjects.” Trump had been blunt. “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he said in the Corriere interview. His grievances were twofold: Meloni’s refusal to back the US-led war on Iran and her condemnation of his attacks on Pope Leo XIV as “unacceptable”. “She is the one who is unacceptable,” Trump added, “because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance”. The dispute also comes against the backdrop of …
By Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini ROME, March 25 (Reuters) – Italy’s beleaguered Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche resigned on Wednesday, belatedly obeying a call to go from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who is trying to reset her government after a bruising referendum defeat. Reeling from the rejection of her judicial reforms in the March 22-23 vote, Meloni on Tuesday secured the resignation of two scandal-hit officials and also asked Santanche, long accused of financial wrongdoing, to leave her tourism post. “Dear Giorgia, As you have officially requested, I hereby tender my resignation,” Santanche wrote in a statement, saying she was going “only in response to a request (from) the leader of my party”. While insisting that she should not be made a scapegoat for a referendum defeat “which was certainly not my fault,” she said she had “no difficulty saying ‘I obey’ and doing what you ask of me.” Santanche — a member of Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party — initially resisted the highly unusual public demand from the head of the government, who …
Italy’s hardline conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, faces a pivotal political test in a two-day referendum on judicial reform that started on Sunday, a vote that has transformed into a broader judgment on her leadership at home and abroad. Originally presented as a technical overhaul of the justice system, the reform has sharpened political divisions and unified the centre‑left opposition, turning the referendum into a symbolic showdown on Meloni’s strength one year ahead of national elections. Recent polls show the race remains too close to call, with the “No” camp gaining late momentum in a polarised climate where turnout may prove decisive. After five hours of voting on the first day, according to Italy’s interior ministry, turnout reached almost 15 percent of eligible voters. That is the highest turnout for any two-day referendum in the past 23 years. Lorenzo Pregliasco, political analyst and polling expert at YouTrend, said a rejection of the reform would carry significant political weight. “A possible ‘No’ victory would send a political signal, weakening Meloni’s aura of invincibility, while pushing the centre-left …
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, February 5, 2026. REMO CASILLI / REUTERS In a Europe shaken by uncertainty, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni stands out, perhaps surprisingly, as an outlier of stability. Neighboring France has struggled with successive weak governments while Germany’s traditional parties are facing challenges from the far right, but in Italy, Meloni – the direct inheritor of Italy’s neo-fascist legacy – is showing unmatched strength in opinion polls. Despite regularly identifying an ever-growing list of internal enemies, nothing has seemed to shake her, not even an approaching referendum on judicial reform, scheduled for March 22 and 23. According to the Italian polling institute YouTrend, her party, Fratelli d’Italia, maintained 29.7% of voting intentions, a figure higher than in the 2022 legislative elections (26%) and the 2024 European elections (28.8%). Meloni’s trust rating, measured at 45% in the 2026 Eurobarometer, stood in contrast to 33% for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and just 15% for French President Emmanuel Macron. This position has given her enough confidence to intervene in France’s tense political climate, …
According to a Wednesday report in La Repubblica, a daily paper, the painter said he had since painted over the face on Tuesday night. “That’s what the Vatican wanted,” Valentinetti told Italian media. “Yes, it is the prime minister’s face,” he confessed, “but based on the previous painting.” POLITICO reached out to the Vatican for comment but did not receive an answer ahead of publication. The culture ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that following the erasure of the face, Rome’s special superintendent had informed the rector of the basilica of the applicable rules. “Any restoration work requires an authorization request to the Religious Buildings Fund of the Interior Ministry, which owns the property, as well as to the Vicariate and the Special Superintendency of Rome, accompanied by a sketch of the image,” the statement said. While Meloni had previously laughed off the issue, noting “I definitely don’t look like an angel,” it remained unclear on Wednesday how Italy’s right-wing leader felt about being so unceremoniously erased. POLITICO contacted Meloni’s office as well as …
ZOÉ VADIM Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was “a giant of Western civilization” and “a titan of the age of exploration,” who left us “an extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance and virtue,” and whose “journey carried thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason and culture across the Atlantic into the Americas.” These exalted declarations were not taken from a dusty colonial history manual from the early 20th-century, nor from the pen of a Francoist Spanish ideologue of the 1940s. They appeared in a presidential proclamation by Donald Trump, signed on October 9 in Washington, just days before Columbus Day, which commemorates Columbus’s arrival on a Bahamian island on October 12, 1492. The words found their echo almost simultaneously on the social media platform X, posted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: “Columbus’s voyage laid the foundations for the unbreakable bond that unites the two sides of the Atlantic, Europe and America, and represents the core of what we call the West.” While the rhetorical and ideological excesses of these two leaders come as no surprise, the …
