Between the leaders of France and Italy, often in rivalry, the dialogue is complicated, but at Palazzo Chigi an attempt is made to reconcile with a marathon face-to-face meeting. The French president is welcomed in the late afternoon by the prime minister. A kiss and big smiles, then the meeting.

Italy is "an important partner" with "a crucial role to play in European decisions", particularly in the Ukrainian conflict, the French Presidency explained to the press. This meeting should allow to verify that "we are really able to move forward together on the essential issues", it added. An Italian government source instead hopes to "lay the foundations for a new strengthening of relations" between the two countries "at the forefront on the various fronts of international politics". Last Friday, Giorgia Meloni had acknowledged "divergences", downplaying them and denying any "personal problem" with Macron. "There is a lot of noise about this subject", she joked, saying she was "very happy" with this visit.

The declared intention is therefore to smooth out the differences . Since 2022, the year of the re-election of the pro-European progressive Macron and the electoral victory of Meloni, relations have not been simple. The return of Donald Trump to the White House, in January, has upset these balances. "There is an indisputable rivalry," observes Marc Lazar, a professor at Sciences-Po in Paris. The two leaders have adopted "different strategies" towards the American president, "mediation and compromise" for the Italian, "firmness without rupture" for the French, this specialist in transalpine relations told France Presse.

According to him, the Italian government "thinks that, being ideologically close to the American administration", "it will be able to make it back down on trade duties". On the French side, however, while saying that it "respects" the fact that everyone can "have the best possible relations with President Trump", it insists on the fact that trade negotiations are the responsibility of the European Commission, as if to deny Giorgia Meloni a real role as mediator. Emmanuel Macron instead positions himself as a European leader on the Ukrainian question, speaking very often with Donald Trump and invoking the relations established during the Republican billionaire's first term.

And his desire to build a "coalition of volunteers" ready to provide "security guarantees" to Ukraine, or even to deploy troops as part of a future peace agreement with Russia, has upset the understanding that had existed until then between Rome and Paris on this issue. In recent weeks, the French president's trip to Kiev with the British, German and Polish leaders - but without Giorgia Meloni - and the reintroduction of this format on the sidelines of a European summit in Albania have brought the differences to light . "Among Europeans, the issue of formats must be managed according to the principle of the best possible impact depending on the circumstances," says the Elysée. On the merits, France stresses that Italy, like others, "has always insisted" on "the participation of the Americans in this device". According to Marc Lazar, French diplomats are downplaying the Italian role on the assumption that France "is a nuclear power, which sits on the UN Security Council" and is therefore already less dependent on the United States.

Convergences are expected to be difficult on this sensitive issue, especially since an advisor to Emmanuel Macron rejected the Italian proposal to grant Ukraine the protection provided for by Article 5 of the NATO treaty without having it join the Atlantic Alliance itself, in order to circumvent Russian and American opposition. "It is a formula that certainly deserves to be discussed, but its implementation is undoubtedly difficult, if only because if the Trump administration refuses Ukraine's membership, it is precisely because it does not want to apply Article 5 in favor of Ukraine," the advisor reports.

(Online Union)

© Riproduzione riservata