Meloni has thrived on the European stage, and has become adept at using the EU machinery to her advantage. Only in recent months, she has made decisive interventions on the EU\u2019s biggest dossiers, such as Russian assets, the Mercosur trade deal and carbon markets, leveraging Italy\u2019s heavyweight status to win concessions in areas like farm subsidies.<\/p>\n
Profiting from France\u2019s weakness, Meloni is also establishing a strong partnership with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz \u2014 a double act between the EU\u2019s No. 1 and No. 3 economies \u2014 to mold the bloc\u2019s policies to favor manufacturing and free trade.<\/p>\n
Crashing down to earth<\/p>\n
For a few more days, at least, Meloni looks like a uniquely stable and influential Italian leader.<\/p>\n
Nicola Procaccini, a Brothers of Italy MEP very close to Meloni and co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, called the government\u2019s longevity a \u201creal novelty\u201d in the European political landscape. <\/p>\n
\u201cUntil recently, Italy couldn\u2019t insert itself into the dynamics of those that shape the European Union \u2014 essentially the Franco-German axis \u2014 because it lacked governments capable of lasting even a year,\u201d said the MEP. \u201cGiorgia Meloni is not just a leader who endures; she is a leader who shapes decisions and influences the direction to be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
But critics of the prime minister said a failure in the referendum would mark a critical turning point. Her rivals would finally detect a chink in her armor and move to attack her record, particularly on economic weaknesses at home. The unexpected, new message to other EU leaders would be clear: She won\u2019t be here for ever. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meloni has thrived on the European stage, and has become adept at using the EU machinery to her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[76,7,5266,18,3607,1395,2914,5267,381,496,168,4720,321,5268,115,5269,171,172,173,174,5270,176,422,332,84,5271,351,1937,372,996,5272,939,940,946,5273,4137,181,3205,88,300,396,3712],"class_list":{"0":"post-7299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-bart-de-wever","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brando-benifei","11":"tag-brussels","12":"tag-carbon","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-debt","15":"tag-democratic-party","16":"tag-donald-trump","17":"tag-elections","18":"tag-emmanuel-macron","19":"tag-employment","20":"tag-farmers","21":"tag-farms","22":"tag-france","23":"tag-french-eu-presidency","24":"tag-friedrich-merz","25":"tag-germany","26":"tag-giorgia-meloni","27":"tag-growth","28":"tag-italian-politics","29":"tag-italy","30":"tag-judiciary","31":"tag-manufacturing","32":"tag-markets","33":"tag-matteo-renzi","34":"tag-media","35":"tag-meps","36":"tag-mercosur","37":"tag-migration","38":"tag-nicola-procaccini","39":"tag-referendum","40":"tag-rights","41":"tag-rule-of-law","42":"tag-silvio-berlusconi","43":"tag-tanks","44":"tag-trade","45":"tag-tunisia","46":"tag-ukraine","47":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","48":"tag-war","49":"tag-war-in-iran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}