Friday “You have a friend in me” Discussion

After the tense, on-air confrontation that Zelensky had with our nation’s #1 and #2 office holders, the EU is trying to figure out what to do.  Victor Orban has come out openly on Trump’s side. Many of the EU want to send soldiers, but Italy is hedging.  Meloni is sympathizing with Zelensky without offending Trump.  She’s very good at straddling fences, it seems.

“She is hedging — she hasn’t decided which way to go,” said Beniamino Irdi, an Atlantic Council senior fellow and former Italian government security policy adviser.  “She still thinks that the special relationship she has built with Trump and Musk may be of more value than her relationship with European allies.”

Meloni has declined to dedicate Italian soldiers to fight for Ukraine.  She also wants to retain good relationships on both sides of the pond.

“The only thing that we really cannot afford is a peace that does not remain, and this cannot be afforded.  Ukraine cannot afford it, Europe cannot afford it, the United States cannot afford it.  For God’s sake, everything can explode.  It’s not good news.  So everything I can do to keep the West united and to strengthen it, I will do.”

Meloni has continued her fence straddling with the summit meeting of the EU countries.  She signed the document with 25 other EU countries, while Orban was the only one to point out that it could interfere with Trump’s negotiations.

As for the rearmament plan, Meloni’s stance is a “yes” but with reservations that could be refined at the formal European Council on March 20–21. “That’s where the decisions are made,” Meloni reminded everyone.  There is time to fine-tune the points important to Rome, she said in a press briefing on Thursday.  The first is to “change the name,” shifting the focus from weapons to defense and security.  The second is to clearly state in advance that Italy will not use the clause allowing Cohesion Funds to be converted into spending on weapons.  “Italy will not deprive itself of these precious resources,” said Meloni, announcing that this will be the “deal” she will propose to Parliament ahead of the next European Council.

Moreover, at a press briefing in Brussels, she suggested that NATO’s Article 5 protection could be extended to cover Ukraine even if it is not a full member-state.  This would be better than options such as the deployment of peacekeeping forces to monitor a ceasefire, she explained: “Extending the same coverage that NATO countries have to Ukraine would certainly be much more effective, while being something different from NATO’s membership.”

All in all, despite her best intentions and her ideological stance — along with her strong ties to U.S. Republicans — Meloni has had a tough time mediating between Washington, D.C. and Brussels.  Yet no leader of a major European country is better suited for that role than she is.  Not for nothing was she the only E.U. head of government invited to Trump’s inauguration in January.  Earlier the same month, she visited him at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump defined her as a “fantastic woman” who has “really taken Europe by storm.”

If all mediation attempts fail, then an extremely complicated, if not dramatic, phase will open in the history of relations between the two sides of the Atlantic.  For this reason, we must hope that the efforts of the Italian prime minister are crowned with success.