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At her very first European summit, in December 2022, Giorgia Meloni had kept a low profile.
Nothing like this this time.
As soon as she arrived in Brussels, the Italian leader criticized Emmanuel Macron.
In question: the dinner that the president had organized the day before at the Élysée with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
When she was asked about the recent trip by the French and German Ministers of the Economy to Washington - without their Italian counterpart, therefore -, the President of the Italian Council had this answer: "
Yesterday's invitation to Zelensky m felt more inappropriate because I think our strength in this story is unity
”.
Even more directly, she accused Emmanuel Macron of
instrumentalizing Zelensky's trip to Paris.
"
I understand domestic political issues, privileging one's own domestic public opinions, but there are times when privileging those opinions may not be favorable to the cause and it seems to me that it has been
,” said she explained to reporters.
In Italy, the press drew a parallel between this dinner to which Giorgia Meloni had not been invited and Emmanuel Macron's trip to kyiv last year with Olaf Scholz and… Mario Draghi, the former President of the Italian Council, who had privileged relations with the French president.
The comparison greatly displeased the Italian leader.
She spent her day beating the president.
While the Twenty-Seven were to exchange in groups of five with Volodymyr Zelensky, the latter finally offered him a bilateral exchange.
During his press conference, Macron admitted that there were no bilateral meetings with Meloni during the long day.
Even though the leaders had a lot of dead time and, beyond the arrival of Zelensky, two subjects of importance for the two countries were on the agenda: migration and the response to the massive subsidies.
According to the words of the president, the two leaders would have only crossed paths.
“
I am always respectful of people and choices
,” he slipped to journalists, before joining Paris.
A way of showing that Meloni, on the contrary, had not been respectful towards him.
Emmanuel Macron, however, wanted to justify the format chosen for Zelensky's dinner at the Élysée.
"
I think that Germany and France have had a special role for 8 years on this issue
(Ukraine, editor's note)
, since we have also, together, precisely supported this process.
I think it's also up to President Zelensky to appreciate the formats he chooses
,” he said in a reference to the Normandy format.
Giorgia Meloni has been at the head of Italy since October 2022. Relations with Emmanuel Macron did not start under the best auspices, due to the Ocean Viking affair.
Meloni had refused to let this migrant boat dock in Italy.
At the end of a showdown lasting several days between Paris and Rome, France had finally resolved to let the 234 migrants disembark in Toulon.
