Giorgia Meloni has confirmed she has been invited to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president and “will fortunately go” if her agenda permits, ending weeks of hypothesis over whether or not the Italian prime minister is on the visitor checklist.
“I’d be pleased to be there,” Meloni informed a press convention in Rome on Thursday when requested about her plans for the 20 January occasion. “I’m evaluating the compatibility with the agenda. If I can, I’ll gladly take part.”
If she does go, Meloni won’t be the one determine from Europe’s far proper: Éric Zemmour, a one-time French presidential candidate recognized for his vituperative xenophobia, mentioned on Thursday he could be attending, whereas an invite has additionally been prolonged to Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Meloni first met Trump on the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in early December and final weekend made a flying go to to his Mar-a-Lago golf membership in Florida.
“The thought [for the trip] got here up in Paris and was a possibility to substantiate a really stable relationship,” she mentioned. “I additionally had a superb relationship with [Joe] Biden, however having two conservative leaders can additional strengthen convergence. It’s added worth for Italy and the EU.”
Meloni added that the pair had spoken “in regards to the normal image” with out “going into particular points”. Nevertheless, it was reported by the New York Occasions that she had “pressed arduous” on the case of Cecilia Sala, the Italian journalist who returned residence on Wednesday after being launched from jail in Iran. Meloni mentioned Sala’s launch was secured by a three-way diplomatic effort between Italy, Iran and the US.
Meloni was talking on the conventional annual press convention of the Italian prime minister, throughout which she responded to a broad vary of questions, largely about her relations with Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk.
Musk has launched scathing assaults on a number of European leaders in latest weeks, specifically the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, which have provoked fury throughout Europe.
However Meloni, who has nurtured an excellent relationship with Musk since coming to energy in October 2022, rejected a suggestion that his feedback on his X social community constituted “harmful interference”.
“The issue is when rich individuals use their assets to finance events, associations and political exponents all around the world to affect the political selections of nation states,” Meloni mentioned. “That’s not what Musk is doing.”
She added: “Elon Musk financed an election marketing campaign in his nation, by his candidate, in a system by which, by the best way, I’d level out that that is fairly frequent. However I’m not conscious of Elon Musk financing events, associations or political exponents all over the world.”
Requested about studies that Italy is in “superior talks” with Musk’s firm, SpaceX, to make use of his Starlink satellite tv for pc system to supply safe communications for the Italian authorities and navy, Meloni mentioned she had by no means “personally spoken to him” about it.
“I don’t do favours for buddies, it isn’t my factor,” Meloni mentioned.
She mentioned her “solely lens was that of the nationwide curiosity” and that Italy was “merely within the investigation section” of the discussions, including that it was regular to have such talks with non-public corporations particularly when there are “no public alternate options”.
Requested about Trump’s remarks this week on Greenland and the Panama canal, Meloni mentioned she believed they had been supposed as messages to different international powers relatively than hostile claims towards two nations.
“I rule out that the US within the coming years will attempt to forcefully annex territories that curiosity them,” she mentioned. “The Panama canal is key for international commerce, Greenland is wealthy in strategic uncooked supplies, and these are territories which have seen a rising Chinese language curiosity lately. It’s an lively manner of claiming that the USA won’t idly stand by within the face of doable initiatives of different huge gamers.”
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