Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron have given this Tuesday a new impulse to their relationship with an unusual bilateral meeting of more than three hours that has sought to end months of frictions that have even reached the personal level. The objective was to offer an unity image at a complex international moment in which the EU cannot afford internal division scenes. The appointment began at six in the afternoon, with a photo in which they both narrowed their hands and smiled at the cameras. He followed a long meeting of both leaders, which lasted almost ten at night, and a work dinner.
Only on the edge of 11 at night both leaders issued a joint statement in which the most repeated idea were “convergence.” Italy and France, they said, “intend to strengthen their common commitment to a more sovereign, stronger and more prosperous Europe, mainly oriented to peace and capable of defending their own interests and protecting their citizens.”
The most important point of the meeting was the war in Ukraine, where Macron and Meloni have exhibited colorful differences when facing the problem. While the French president leads an initiative with Germany and Poland that studies the sending of troops, the Italian leader has remained on the sidelines and criticism with the idea. But the statement is an attempt to close rows: “More than three years after the start of Russian aggression and after the conversations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, the firm and unwavering support of France and Italy to Ukraine is even more necessary to achieve a fair and lasting solution, which presupposes an ambitious change of scale in the European defense, both in terms of investments and support for the support of the industrial defense base European ”.
Macron and Meloni have addressed the situation of the Middle East, Libya and relations with the United States, the main topics on the table. Also, according to the note, they have shown in tune on the European agenda “in regulatory simplification, public and private investments, energy and full application of the principle of technological neutrality, and, more generally, in the necessary conditions for European companies to compete on equal terms”. Specifically, they pointed to sectors in transition “such as automotive and steel, which require a strong European commitment, as well as more advanced sectors, such as artificial intelligence, decarbonized renewable energies, such as nuclear, and space.”
The two leaders have set the next summit between Italy and France and for the beginning of 2026. It has been a clear gesture to recover a relationship that was never good between Meloni and Macron. More on the side of the president of the Italian Council of Ministers, who always perceived some arrogance in the character of his interlocutor, than for his own, normally interested in pleasing his international partners.
The strange episodes, the disagreements, even in the personal field, followed since. But it was on May 16, in Albania, during the meeting of European countries, when both leaders approached a point of no return that ignited all alarms in the diplomacy of both countries. His representations have worked for two weeks to prepare this Tuesday’s repair meeting in Rome. A thaw that should grease the relations of two EU founding countries at a crucial moment.
That day Macron, the German Friedrich Merz, the British Keir Starmer, the Polish Donald Tusk and the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelenski gathered after, in which Meloni had also participated, and jointly called the president of the United States ,. She, who boasts a great relationship with the current tenant of the White House, was left out of that communication. In Italy, Runrún began, accusing her of having an irrelevant role in international conversations to reach a peace agreement.
“Italy has declared that it is not willing to send troops to Ukraine. It would not make sense to participate in formats that have objectives with those who do not agree,” the ultra -rightist leader defended. But Macron denied her hard, accusing her even of spreading False news: “We have not talked about troops, but of a high fire. The false information of the Russians are enough,” he launched. Meloni simply was not invited.
The concept of “format” has been widely used by the Italian president to highlight that they are anomalous initiatives outside the EU and, above all, of Trump, in which he sees an eagerness of Macron’s prominence. “You have to abandon personalism, priority is the unity of the West,” said Meloni. In addition to the personal, obviously the ideological differences also weigh, as Meloni represents the sovereign ultra -right that advances in Europe. But susceptibility has even reached the Italian press to see Macron’s hand in an attempt to influence the conclave that chose the new Pope, for the previous days. “Fake news”, Replicated the Elysium again.
The diplomacy of both countries began to work after the clash in Albania. After months of tensions and when the EU plays its future in front of an increasingly unilateral world, it is not the time to continue exhibiting divisions. “There is absolutely no ostracism towards Meloni”, who “has always participated in the meetings,” they had assured in the days before Paris. It has been an appointment fully dedicated to Meloni, since Macron has not visited his counterpart, the president of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, or the Pope, as the international leaders usually do to take advantage of the trip to Rome.
Meloni’s cabinet has also worked these days to demact that idea of mutual animosion, which grows for months as an unquestionable fact and that until now no one worried about denying. “As they say in Rome, a lot of cream has been mounted on this matter, as if it were a personal issue,” said the president on Friday to journalists, whom he claims to see “very passionate” with the subject.
“Everything seems quite natural to me, I say it sincerely. They are friends, allies, with totally convergent positions in many matters, and also sometimes with divergences. It can happen, it is normal, but it does not mean that there are personal problems,” Meloni repeated for the second time, aware that it is actually the main point that they should refuse, and the most basic objective of the meeting on Tuesday: a photo together smiling. It has been stressed, on both parties, that the proposal of the meeting has departed from Paris, although in Italy it is pointed out that it has been through the mediation of the German government. Everyone assumes that it is not time to open internal divisions. There will be no joint appearance before the press and then they will have dinner together.
Ukraine and Gaza, priorities
The two key issues of this Tuesday’s meeting were and. In the first section, both countries have different visions about the sending of troops. Meloni opposes now, despite Macron’s conviction that there could be a modulation of said position. They also differ on the possible implementation of article 5 of NATO in Ukraine (without being that country members of the Atlantic Alliance), which would imply automatic defense in the future in case the country was attacked again.
Macron wants to involve Italy in the coalition that drives with the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland, but Meloni always refuses any initiative that means getting off the US to the first meeting of the group, last February, arrived ostensibly late, to show that that almost did not go with her and reluctantly came. Attitude that has dragged until today and led to the Tirana Noneing scene.
On the conflict in the Macron, Macron plans to recognize the Palestinian state at the next UN Summit in New York, which will preside with Saudi and Indonesian Arabia, and tries, without success, enroll Italy in the group of EU countries that have already done so, such as Spain or Ireland. Rome, who voted last month against reviewing the EU Association Agreement with Israel, has no intention of taking that step.
A third issue of discussion that Italy has put on the table is that of the situation in Libya, which suffers a new phase of instability, very worrying for Meloni for its possible effects on immigration that starts from its coasts, now maintained at line by the Tripoli authorities.
Macron, in the sight of Italian conservatives
Macron is the favorite target of the Italian right since the country opened the door to a populist gale in March 2018. Already during the first mandate of the Chief of the French State, issues such as the renegotiation of the agreement for the acquisition of the Atlantic shipyards by the Italian naval builder Fincantieri (finally abandoned), or rivalries around the libyan file, created a climate and Rome. This culminated in the bilateral diplomatic crisis of 2019, with the visit of the Vice Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio to a Committee of Yellow Vests in the Loiret.
The following phase, with the contest II governments and then Draghi marked a reconciliation with the signing of the Quirinal Treaty in 2021. But the arrival of Giorgia Meloni in 2022 rarely raised the relationship again.
The important thing now, they insisted from Paris, is to “agree” on the essential and focus “fundamentally.” As gestures of approach, Meloni is expected to go to the UN Conference on the Oceans of Nice, next weekend, and that Macron attends the International Conference for the reconstruction of Ukraine that Meloni is organizing in July in Italy.
