Meloni: the woman with values and gumption

The Daily Telegraph recognizes the values and political acumen of Giorgia Meloni. This was a woman whom the progressives and liberals in Malta have labelled a fascist. This is a woman who an Italian ambassador in Malta considered all those who spoke well about her as enemies of Italy. The only interest of this Ambassador was in his wife playing piano and considering conservatives as Fascists and enemies of Italy!

In this article, the Daily Telegraph analysis the encounter between Meloni and Rishi Sunak. This lady is proving herself to be a politician that can lead. She is making Italy a great and respected nation in Europe. In other words, she is a woman with values and gumption.

Rishi Sunak appeared to have made a new best friend on the diplomatic circuit on Wednesday, as he laughed with his Italian counterpart for the second day in a row.

The Prime Minister was pictured sharing a joke with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, at a meeting of the Ukraine-Nato Council in Vilnius, Lithuania.

On Tuesday night, the two were seen laughing at something on Ms Meloni’s mobile phone before heading into a leaders’ dinner at the centrepiece of the Nato summit.

Number 10 sources said they did not know what was on Ms Meloni’s screen.

The pair’s friendship first blossomed in the margins of the Cop 27 summit in Egypt last November, and they have since been photographed together at a G7 meeting in Japan and on the steps of Downing Street during a bilateral summit.

Mr Sunak, 43, and Ms Meloni, 46, came to power in their respective countries within three days of each other.

While Ms Meloni is Italy’s first female prime minister, Mr Sunak is the first British prime minister of Asian heritage.

They are both conservatives, although Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is considered more Right-wing than Britain’s Conservative Party.

The pair are also facing similar political problems at home, with illegal migration filling the newspapers in both London and Rome.

Mr Sunak’s approach to “stopping the boats” has largely been led by international agreements, including with Rwanda and Albania, combined with Border Force crafts in the English Channel.

However, Ms Meloni favours a more extreme approach and has previously called for a naval blockade to prevent migrants from reaching Italy from across the Mediterranean.

Last month, Mr Sunak sent Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, to Italy to forge a new deal with the Italian government that would see the two countries share intelligence on people smugglers and tactics used by their border and national crime agencies.

The so-called “strategic migration partnership” may explain their apparent closeness at summits over the last nine months.

Mr Sunak has also offered to help Italy strike an Albania-style deal with Tunisia to make it easier for it to return illegal migrants who arrive on the Italian coast.