Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with President Joe Biden at the White House this week and called for an end to illegal immigrants, according to Fox News.
Meloni, Italy’s first female Prime Minister, met with President Joe Biden on Friday, where they discussed a number of foreign policy issues, including Ukraine, Gaza and migration.
Stefano Vaccara, founder of La Voce di New York and an American political correspondent for ITALPRESS, described Meloni as a fierce anti-globalist during the campaign, but once her Brothers of Italy Party won the election, she took a more globalist stance on most issues.
“There is a very famous phrase that she said when she was campaigning: I am Giorgia. I am a mother. I am a Catholic, and I am a patriot,” Vaccara said. “That was like a sign of her being very conservative.”
Vaccara also noted that Meloni after coming to power “didn’t do anything that she was saying when she was complaining, because she became a very, very stable partner of Europe and also of the United States.”
DW confirmed Vaccara’s words, noting that she did not repeat any of the “more radical slogans she was so fond of while campaigning,” so her European policy turned out to be moderate.
Thomas Corbett-Dillon, an American political commentator, warned that Meloni’s change of heart would continue to alienate voters: “The people elected her to be the Italian Trump, it was supposed to be Italy First, instead it has been immigrants and Ukraine first,” Corbett-Dillon told Fox News Digital. “Europeans are absolutely sick of being ignored by these globalists who promise us everything but deliver nothing.”
During the meeting, Meloni and Biden reiterated their continued support for Ukraine against the Russian side in the conflict in Ukraine, and Biden praised Meloni’s leadership in the G7, which began in January, and in the European Union to increase support for Ukraine.
In addition, Meloni said she would support a US role as a mediator in the Gaza crisis, reaffirmed a commitment to Israel’s right to self-defence “consistent with international law” and “underscored the urgent need to increase deliveries of life-saving humanitarian aid assistance throughout Gaza,” according to a readout from the White House.
Meloni also kept up the media coverage of the large number of migrants at Italy’s borders, repeatedly promising to crack down on unauthorised arrivals from North Africa with tougher immigration laws, including restrictions on the activities of rescue charities at sea.
Last year, she said Italy would deport all foreigners legally residing in the country if they were deemed a threat to public order or national security, as well as any immigrants who lied about their age.
“What needs to be done in Africa is to build cooperation and serious strategic relationships as equals, not predators.”
Meloni told reporters at a conference at the end of the year that the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact agreement had partly improved the situation for Italy and other asylum countries, but was not a solution to the ever-increasing number of migrant arrivals.
Italy has laid out its strategy in Africa in the so-called Mattei Plan, named after Enrico Mattei, founder of state-owned oil and gas giant Eni. The aim is to turn Italy into an energy hub for transporting natural gas from Africa to the rest of Europe, with Italian energy giant Eni set to play a key role in the initiative.
