Despite world powers meeting in Rome, Italy remains a player, not a leader by Dario Pio Muccilli, Star-Revue EU correspondent

A stunning photo was released after the funeral of Pope Francis, last April 26th: Zelensky, Trump, Macron and Starmer seemingly exchanging amenities ahead of the mass. The message of the photo is clear if read together with the picture of Trump and the Ukrainian leader speaking face-to-face in a corner of Saint Peter Basilica: France and the UK brokered this last meeting and they wanted the world to know.

Reportedly, the foursome portrait has irritated Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. Although the Vatican is its own State, it is still in Rome where Meloni would have thought to play at home. Nevertheless, according to the Italian daily newspaper Repubblica, French President Macron was able to shadow her and monopolize the attention of Trump. This did come as a surprise after Meloni’s last trip to the White House on April 17th, where she and the American tycoon chitchatted as two lovers on ‘western nationalism’ and against ‘woke culture’, yet without reaching any even tiny agreement on tariffs.

Italian optics
Italian diplomatic activism vis-a-vis the US has increased significantly in the last months. Not only Meloni went to Washington and persuaded Trump to make an official state visit to Italy soon, but the day after that she even hosted in Rome VP Vance, which seemed rather unusual considering that they met the day before on the other side of the Atlantic.

Her Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani was deeply involved in the US-Iran negotiations held at the Oman Embassy in Rome last April 19th and he is probably going to be there again if the Iran proposal to set a new meeting on May 2nd will be accepted.

Eventually, it should be mentioned the special relationship that Meloni seems to enjoy with Elon Musk which in the past led to some (fake) gossip speculation on the two of them.

The goal that Meloni and her government are pursuing with all these initiatives is to portray themselves in Europe as the natural mediators in the Transatlantic relationships. That is why Rome’s photo hurts so much: it is known that Paris did not approve Italian leading role with Trump and, so, the funeral of Pope Francis became an occasion to tell Meloni that the big boys will take care of everything.

Always a fantasy
Truth be told, the idea of Meloni being the main broker of any US-EU tariffs deal or relationship whatsoever was indeed fantasy. Italy has not a geopolitical stance that allows Meloni to claim a seat at the big table. The Ukrainian and defense issue is indeed the soft spot of any foreign policy carried out in Italy. According to the Kiel Institute for World Economy, the country has invested 2 billions in bilateral aid and 7 in EU ones, while France did 5 and 10 billions in bilateral and EU aid, respectively.

Even countries with a smaller size and industrial capacity than Italy did more than her 9 billions, such as Denmark and the Netherlands.

On the general issue of a European defense alternative to NATO, France is naturally leading the discussions since it is the only nuclear power in the continent, while Italy, given her high-debt and nationalist rhetoric, is not invested that much in this regard. Meloni is surely a strong leader, the one who gave stability to Italian politics, but her charisma is not enough to put Rome at the center of the world as if the Roman Empire was still there.

Italy is bounded to be no more than a medium-range power that will always struggle to be included in the top-level political venues, because her place has no reason to be secured. One could only hope that behind the scenes, Meloni is aware of that and therefore understands that the only thing for the country to do is to engage in multilateralism, rather than going alone and crashing on the wall.