U.S. President Joe Biden, after having vilified Prime Minister Georgia Meloni as anti-democratic just as he had done to her EU allies in the Polish government, has extended high praise to the Italian leader—again, just as he did with Poland’s ruling PiS party—for taking positions and implementing policies that align with Washinton’s interests.
Biden, despite having previously described Meloni’s victory last September as “worrying for democracy,” put aside differences on social issues like immigration, abortion, and LGBT issues and lauded the Italian prime minister for fervently backing U.S.-led efforts to equip and aid Kyiv in the Russo-Ukrainian wars, the Milan-based daily newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported.
Biden, while addressing the press in the Oval Office, even went so far as to say that he and Meloni had become “friends.”
The warm welcome to Meloni—the last of the G7 leaders to meet with the U.S. president at the White House—came as a surprise to some in light of Biden’s previous statements about her government. Since taking office, Meloni’s pro-Washington signalling, her staunchly pro-Atlanticist foreign policy positions related to the war in Ukraine, and Italy’s relationship with China appear to have won her favour among the Democratic Party establishment.
Meloni, in her opening remarks, extended her thanks to Biden for his “hospitality,” and added that the closeness shared by Italy and the United States is “based on common values and cultural roots.” She said that the strong Italian-U.S. bond was forged by the “contribution of millions of Americans of Italian origin,” which makes Italy an “integral part of the great American nation and contributed in shaping its culture and identity.”
“And also because of that, our relations are historically strong. They cross governments and remain in solid regard—regardless of their political colors. We know who our friends are in times that are tough,” she said.
Speaking to Italy’s news channel Sky Tg24 about some of the concerns about her government, Meloni said:
False propaganda, so to speak, preceded me, which described the idea of a centre-right government as a disaster in terms of maintaining international relations, in terms of economic stability for Italy, in terms of institutional and national stability.
But in reality, once it was no longer possible to mystify—because facts count more than the narrative built around those facts—it emerged that a center-right government led by Giorgia Meloni as prime minister is a serious government.
The Biden administration has treated leaders of other centre-right governments, ones that might be described as ‘nationalistic’ or ‘populist,’ differently than Meloni’s.
In contrast to Meloni, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has not only refused to involve Hungary in the war but repeatedly accused Washington and its European subordinates of throwing fuel on the fire of the 18-month-long conflict, has not yet received a White House invitation. Biden, notably, excluded Orbán from his so-called ‘Summit for Democracy’ in late March. The Hungarian prime minister was the only EU leader who did not receive an invite to the summit.
Meloni’s key right-wing European ally, Polish President Andrzej Duda, who met with Biden in Warsaw earlier this year and whose political party Biden has referred to as “totalitarian,” has also yet to receive an invite to the White House during Biden’s presidency.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, a country that has long been considered one of Washington’s closest allies, has also been invited to the White House.
Aside from the war in Ukraine, China, economic relations, next year’s G7 meeting—which Italy will organise and host—were also top items on the agenda.
The U.S. has pressured Meloni to pull Italy, which presently is the only G7 member in China’s Belt and Road initiative, out of the trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan Beijing is using to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.
Meloni expressed to the U.S. president that she does plan to scale back Italy’s reliance on China. “If you think that the U.S. demands or imposes the policy on this, you are wrong. The conversation is broad and involves all G7 countries and it is about de-risking from supply chain dependence on China which is a priority,” Meloni told reporters following the meeting with the U.S. head of state.
