Giorgia Meloni has dismissed the idea that Italy will have to choose sides between the US and Europe as “childish” and “superficial”, insisting she would do whatever is necessary to defend her country’s interests.
In her first interview with a foreign newspaper since coming to office in 2022, the Italian prime minister said it was “in the interests of everyone” to overcome severe strains in the transatlantic relationship, describing some European leaders’ reactions to Donald Trump as “a bit too political”.
Italy’s nationalist conservative leader made clear she did not see the US president as an adversary and she would continue to respect Italy’s “first ally”.
@latenightnoir well, we needed a landmark and the US was there for us right as we left communism. However we mostly failed to internalize its values and we kept things going even after joining the EU. Most of the European values seem like they’re more at home in the Western Europe (France, Germany, Austria, BeNeLux, the Scandinavian countries, hell, even the UK) than in Eastern Europe and in particular in Romania (can’t really tell about how our former Warsaw pact neighbors are doing).
For most of the population (except most of the richer and educated class in the bigger cities), America is the land of the brave, home of the free, the land of all possibilities that they see in those cheap Hollywood movies they see on TV every evening.