Arrr, Meloni be turnin' coat like a scurvy dog! The base be ready to make her walk the plank!
2024-03-02
Arrr, me hearties! The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni be sailin' in uncharted waters, takin' a likin' to them European ways and followin' the lead of President Biden like a true matey. Let's hope she doesn't end up walkin' the plank fer her bold choices!
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with President Biden this week, calling for an end to illegal immigrants amid criticism from her voters that she has strayed from the more hardline stances she supported during her campaign."A lot of people were her voters, who were supporting, that were writing ‘I will not vote for her anymore,’" which he said was "because she gets along with Biden."Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, met with Biden Friday, where they discussed a number of foreign policy issues, including Ukraine, Gaza and migration. Vaccara painted a picture of Meloni as a staunch anti-globalist when on the campaign trail, but once her Brothers of Italy Party, a national-conservative and right-wing populist party, won the election, she assumed a more globalist stance on most issues.German outlet DW questioned how "radical" Meloni has proven to be after taking power in Rome, noting that she has not repeated any of the "more radical slogans she was so fond of while campaigning."Thomas Corbett-Dillon, a U.S.-based political commentator and former adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, warned that Meloni's shift in stance will continue alienate voters and anticipates a return to her more anti-European and hard-right rhetoric come election time - but too little, too late.During their meeting, Meloni and Biden reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, and Biden commended Meloni’s leadership in the G7, which started in January, and the European Union to bolster support for Ukraine.Meloni has also continued keeping the high level of migrants on Italy’s borders in the media, repeatedly promising to clamp down on unauthorized arrivals from North Africa with harsher immigration laws, restrictions on sea rescue charities and plans to build migrant reception camps in Albania.The prime minister last year announced that Italy would deport any foreigners living legally in Italy if they are deemed a threat to public order or national security and any immigrants who lied about their age to benefit from a "protection scheme" reserved for unaccompanied minors.At the end of the year, though, Meloni told reporters at a conference that a deal on the E.U.’s Migration and Asylum Pact partially improved the situation for Italy and other asylum countries, but does not represent a solution to the ever-increasing migrant arrivals.Meloni also stressed the need "to defend the right not to have to emigrate ... and this is done with investments and a strategy."Italy outlined its proposed strategy in Africa in the so-called Mattei Plan — named after Enrico Mattei, founder of state-controlled oil and gas giant Eni — which seeks to tackle education and training, agriculture, health, water and energy development.The aim is to make Italy an energy hub to transport natural gas supplies from Africa to the rest of Europe, with Italian energy major Eni set to play a key role in the initiative.