Monitoring Meloni: Italy’s Prime Minister and the Future of EU-U.S. Relations
Meloni’s positive relationship with Elon Musk and Brussels will likely make her a central leader in future EU-U.S relations (Free Malaysia Today).
Despite her fascist political origins, Giorgia Meloni has skyrocketed to international prominence during her reign as Italy’s first female prime minister. Meloni’s far-right domestic social policies often stand in contrast to her more moderate approach to politics in Brussels. This pragmatism, coupled with her close relationship with President-Elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally, Elon Musk, makes Meloni a pivotal figure in the future of United States-EU relations.
Meloni began her political career at age 15 when she joined Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), a right-wing party created by supporters of Italy’s former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Meloni entered the lower house of the Italian parliament in 2006 and became Minister of Youth by 2008. The youngest minister in postwar Italian history deftly coped with the internal collapse of the coalition in 2011, co-founding the Brothers of Italy a year later. Meloni’s party paralleled the many other right-wing, populist, Euroskeptic groups at the time. Meloni was elected leader of the Brothers of Italy in 2014 and slowly built up the party’s popularity. By 2019, the group secured over six percent of the vote in a European Parliament election. Meloni’s prominence grew with her party’s, and in 2020 she was appointed president of the European Conservatives and Reformists bloc within the European Parliament.
In the build-up to the 2023 elections, Meloni continued to make headlines for her far-right views. At a rally for the Spanish neofascist party Vox, Meloni proudly proclaimed “yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby … no to gender ideology … no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!”
Italy’s fragile centrist coalition government fell apart in 2022, and other right-wing groups quickly coalesced around Meloni. Throughout her campaign, Meloni suppressed Euroskeptic rhetoric, instead pledging to support Ukraine. The Brothers of Italy won 26 percent of the vote in the 2022 snap elections, with Meloni’s coalition winning 44 percent of the total vote. Per “first past the post” majority rules, the Brothers of Italy completed their ascent to power with clear majorities in both houses of the Italian parliament.
During her time in office, Meloni has pushed for conservative social policies that appease her far-right fanbase in addition to more moderate EU policies. Her efforts at curbing immigration have targeted NGOs and rescue ships, but her campaign promise of imposing a naval blockade remains at an impasse due to its violation of international law.
Meloni, a staunch Catholic and single mother, continues to prioritize an increase in Italy’s birth rate. This objective has been advanced by monetary policy that gives families stipends for having children, with an increase in benefits for each additional child. However, such protections only extend to traditional families. Under Meloni’s reign, it has become nearly impossible for LGBTQ+ couples to start a family. Queer parents have had their names removed from their child’s birth certificate for the past year, owing to legislation that mandates only the name of the biological parent of a child can appear on the document. In October 2024, surrogacy for Italians outside of the country was banned.
On an EU level, Meloni has refused to neatly align herself with the far-right bloc. Despite previous anti-EU sentiment, Meloni worked closely with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and other Brussels officials to sustain access to important funds. Moreover, Meloni continues to staunchly support Ukraine, going so far as to convince Putin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban to approve military aid to Ukraine.
Meloni has succeeded in preserving international credibility while working to enact her conservative policy agenda, a balance most other populist European leaders have failed to achieve. Furthermore, Meloni’s power may only grow considering her close ties to Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Following multiple visits in 2023, Musk and Meloni’s relationship gained public traction at an Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards dinner. The two appeared so enamored with each other that Musk took to his social media platform X to deny romantic attachment after photos of the two at the event began to circulate.
Musk was one of President-Elect Donald Trump’s most prominent backers and has been named the head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency. Meloni shared a post on X stating that she had spoken with Musk to congratulate him on the position. Meloni was also the first European leader to speak with Trump after his victory, a conversation during which she “expressed willingness to work in close coordination on all the main international issues, starting with the war in Ukraine.” Trump has fostered a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has pledged to bring a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Regardless, her close friendship with Musk, history of pragmatic politics, and success in dealing with far-right leaders cement Meloni as an important figure to watch as the Trump presidency unfolds.