Dual insults — one from the US president and one other from a Russian commentator — flung at Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni seem like uniting at least a few of her critics behind her.
Last week, US president Donald Trump – who has traditionally had a detailed relationship with Italy’s conservative chief – decried Meloni as “unacceptable” after she stood as much as him over his criticism of Pope Leo XIV.
“She is the one who is unacceptable because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance,” he informed Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. “I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong.”
The dispute spilled over past the US-Italy relationship this week, when Russian tv character Vladimir Solovyov referred to as her a “certifiable idiot” and “disgrace to the human race” over her “betrayal” of Trump and assist of Ukraine.
Italy’s Meloni backs Pope Leo in conflict with Trump
Italy summoned the Russian ambassador to formally complain and Meloni posted a cryptic response on X.
“By nature, a diligent regime propagandist cannot impart lessons in either coherence or freedom. But these caricatures certainly won’t change our ways,” she wrote. “We, unlike others, have no strings attached, no masters, and we take no orders. Our compass remains one: Italy’s interests. And we will continue to follow it with pride, much to the chagrin of propagandists everywhere.”
Rather than bruising the Italian chief, the barbs have seem to have gained her assist at home, even uniting those that vehemently oppose and criticize her.
“Her opposition has always said she was subservient to Trump. Now it has been harder for her opponents to attack her,” Giovanni Orsina, director of the division of Political Science at Luiss University in Rome, informed NCS. “More or less the same goes with the attack by the Russian. It was really very harsh and somehow this has obliged the opposition and even the pPresident of the Republic to defend her.”
President Sergio Mattarella, a left-wing politician, has typically disagreed with Meloni’s authorities’s insurance policies, particularly these coping with reproductive rights and immigration.
The spats additionally seem like helping her approval score right here in Italy, the place she just lately suffered a defeat in a nationwide referendum over judicial reform. After dropping greater than 10 factors in weekly polls following the referendum , her reputation has crawled again as much as pre-referendum ranges, in accordance with SWG-La7 political polls.
“I think this is an advantage – bottom line,” Orsina informed NCS. “Not unqualified advantage but certainly more positive than negative for her. For the Italian public opinion, that kind of attack on the pope was a bit too much – and Meloni was able to answer Trump on grounds that were inarguably in her favor, or at least in a way Italians perceived her to be right.”
That isn’t any small feat. Meloni was criticized by her opposers for being Trump’s best friend in Europe. In January 2025, the so-called “Trump whisperer” flew to Mar a Lago earlier than his inauguration, the place he hailed her as a “fantastic woman,” thanks partly to her shut relationship with Elon Musk.
And it’s laborious to neglect Trump gushing over her at the Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh final 12 months.
“In the United States, it would be the end of your political career. But I’ll take the risk. Do you mind if I say you’re beautiful? Because you truly are beautiful,” he stated.
That coziness had more and more grow to be a legal responsibility for Meloni, particularly after the threats of tariffs on European-made items final summer season, and the more moderen US, and Israel warfare in Iran. Where she as soon as revelled in her coveted seat in Trump’s internal circle, she had extra just lately averted remark, past becoming a member of Europe in “expressing concern” over the warfare. She had not gone as far as condemnation.
She had been cautious, however within the days earlier than Trump lambasted her, she quietly introduced Italy was slicing formal protection ties with Israel. “In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” Meloni informed reporters in Verona in early April. “When there are things we don’t agree with, we act accordingly.”
Even Meloni’s fiercest political opponent, Elly Shlein, head of the opposition Democratic Party, made a uncommon conciliatory remark about her.
“I want to reiterate that Italy is a free and sovereign country, and our Constitution is clear: Italy repudiates war, ” Schlein, who’s an Italian-American twin nationwide, stated throughout her speech to parliament final week.
“No foreign head of state can allow himself to attack, threaten, or disrespect our country and our government. We are adversaries in this chamber, but we are all Italian citizens and representatives of Italians, and we will not accept attacks or threats against the government and our country,” she stated. Shlein additionally got here to Meloni’s protection after the Russian commentator’s insults.
The public discourse comes at a time when Meloni was dealing with scrutiny over her public assist for the nationalist former chief of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, throughout his reelection marketing campaign. Meloni, like Trump, constructed her profession on her nationalism, together with anti-immigration and “Italy first” insurance policies.
After Orbán’s defeat and Trump’s personal waning reputation over the Iran warfare and its devastating impact on the worldwide economic system, that nationalistic strategy is more and more seen by Italians as reckless.
“Here is there is a growing feeling that these forms of nationalism may not be really the correct answer and certainly Orbán’s defeat has contributed to the idea,” Orsina informed NCS. “That she is proposing the same nationalist answer, like Orbán and Trump, is maybe not the right approach.”
Voters could have the ultimate say on whether or not Meloni’s strategy is working. She faces elections in 2027. If her authorities stays intact, she could have been the longest- serving prime minister after Silvio Berlusconi and Benito Mussolini.