The right-wing prime minister used her address to emphasize publicly her disagreements with the American leader for the first time since he was reelected in 2024.
“As is normal among allies, we must clearly say even when we do not agree,” Meloni told parliament. She went on to list episodes where she claimed her government stood up to the White House, from tariffs “which we have many times defined as a wrong choice,” to defending “the honor of our soldiers in Afghanistan, who had been defined as useless,” and protecting Greenland’s territorial integrity alongside European allies.
The Italian leader also described the war in Iran as “a military operation that Italy did not agree with and did not participate in … a fact that emerged in all its concreteness with the Sigonella affair,” she continued. She was referring — for the first time in a public statement — to Italy’s recent decision to refuse permission for a U.S. military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before flying to the Middle East.
Thursday’s remarks are a clear rhetorical pivot on her alliance with Trump — who is highly unpopular in Italy — when compared with softer positions earlier this year.
Meloni had described Trump’s tariffs against the European countries that sent troops to Greenland as a “mistake,” but also justified that decision as being caused by a “misunderstanding.” She also supported the idea of giving Trump a Nobel Peace Prize.
But skyrocketing energy prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East are proving particularly politically dangerous.