This has been rather surprising, and is no doubt a source of great irritation to Putin, whose networks supported the FdI takeover. It remains to be seen whether she will continue that line with Trump in office, but she's been so publicly pro-Kiev that it would be hard to walk it back at this point.

I predict Biden will meet with Pope Francis and commute all federal death penalties to life w/o - as is consistent with Catholic doctrine, despite the pathologies of US Catholicism. If he does it with the Pope standing next to him, so much the better.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/opinion/meloni-trump-europe.html

https://archive.ph/tSgNl



Unless Donald Trump decides to communicate with European allies solely in the acerbic language of tariffs, he will have to address the famous question usually attributed to Henry Kissinger: Whom do I call when I want to talk to Europe? For Mr. Trump, an America First president-elect whose affection for Europe seems to extend only to its golf courses, it’s not easy to answer. There’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, the most Trumpian character on the continent. Yet the autocratic Mr. Orban is a political pariah, constantly clashing with European Union institutions, and he leads a small country whose economic output is comparable with that of Kansas. Mr. Orban might be an ally. But he can’t do much to enlarge a Trumpist coalition in Europe, let alone shape policy in its image. For that role, Mr. Trump should look elsewhere: to Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s post-fascist prime minister. According to people close to her, she is already positioning herself to act as a bridge between the incoming Trump administration and Europe’s leaders. After cementing her rule in Italy, where she has balanced her authoritarian instincts with pragmatism, Ms. Meloni is clearly ready for her next task: bringing Trumpism into the heart of Europe.

The stars seem to be aligning in her favor. Ms. Meloni has been running the third-largest economy in the eurozone for over two years, a remarkably long time by Italy’s standards, and remains reasonably popular. The continent, meanwhile, has been moving swiftly to the right. Far-right parties like the one Ms. Meloni leads are now involved in governments in seven E.U. countries and are on the rise almost everywhere, including in France and Germany. At the international level, Ms. Meloni has proved herself to be a canny operator. To the surprise of critics, she has forged warm relationships with President Biden and the president of the E.U. Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She’s at the helm of the European Conservatives and Reformists group — a relatively moderate force in the European Parliament, compared with the populist hard-liners, that includes the U.S. Republican Party in its global network — and has a reputation for skilled diplomacy. The recent appointment of one of her most trusted supporters as an executive vice president of the commission will surely deepen her influence in Brussels.

Ms. Meloni is rising as Europe’s major leaders appear to be falling. President Emmanuel Macron of France was already weakened by summer elections; the collapse last week of a minority government he put together has dealt another major blow to his authority. Things for Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany are, if anything, worse: He is wildly unpopular and, after the fall of his government last month, facing elections his party is almost certain to lose. After Mr. Trump’s recent election, the two leaders urged “the European Union to stand close together and act in a united manner.” But there’s no sign they’ll be able to bring that about. Ms. Meloni is well placed to profit from their weakness. Her advantages are many: She leads a founding E.U. member and a key NATO partner, with military bases facing the Middle East; she has built a strategically ambiguous profile and can play hardball nationalism or wrap herself in a European flag, as the circumstances require; and she’s a team player adept at navigating the shoals of Brussels. Taken together, she is set to become central to the bloc’s leadership.

It helps that she has an in with Elon Musk. Over the years, the two have cultivated a close relationship. Mr. Musk has visited Rome several times and spoke at a major conference for her party last year; in September, he presented Ms. Meloni with an award in New York, praising the “incredible job” she’s doing as prime minister. (Ironically, the two often chat on WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by his nemesis, Mark Zuckerberg, whom Mr. Musk once challenged to a cage fight in the Colosseum.) By affinity, circumstance and connection, Ms. Meloni is the perfect person to bring Trumpism to Europe. What does that look like in practice? First and foremost, it involves a hard line on immigration. On this issue, the European Union has shifted to the right in recent years, policing borders and hardening asylum rules. But Ms. Meloni has taken the anti-immigration stance to a new level with her proposal to use detention centers in Albania to check and eventually deport migrants before they even set foot on E.U. soil. Circumventing E.U. laws and projecting brutal toughness, this is exactly the kind of initiative that embodies the Trumpist spirit.

snip

related




https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2024/06/13/how-biden-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-meloni-00163247

At last year’s Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, some senior administration officials who’d been in the room for high-level meetings couldn’t stop marveling at how well President JOE BIDEN was getting along with Italian Prime Minister GIORGIA MELONI. When she rose to power in 2022 as the leader of the Brothers of Italy, a party that has its roots in postwar neofascism, White House aides were bereft about the resignation of former Prime Minister MARIO DRAGHI, a technocrat whom Biden had worked well with. And they harbored deep uncertainty about how this unknown replacement from Italy’s far right would govern and engage with G7 allies. But that anxiety is long gone. When the president arrived on Thursday at the Borgo Egnazia resort for this year’s summit, he and Meloni — suddenly the strongest leader among a group facing domestic crises and dim election prospects — greeted one another warmly. After a kiss on both cheeks, Biden grasped her by the hand, then switched hands for a more formal shake as they turned toward the assembled photographers. Finally, as he was directed off the riser to sign a guest book, Biden offered the summit host a playful salute.

“They have a very good relationship,” said one White House official who was granted anonymity to describe the Biden-Meloni relationship to West Wing Playbook. “The White House has been pleasantly surprised by how she has been such a strong transatlanticist since becoming prime minister. She has been an excellent partner on a range of issues.” No one would suggest Meloni and Biden are ideologically aligned. While she has governed from the center-right, her domestic agenda is more similar to the Republican Party’s in the U.S., centered on cutting income taxes and welfare benefits — to say nothing of her stances on curtailing migration, opposing same-sex marriage and limiting the rights of same-sex parents. But none of that is of much concern to the White House. The official pointed to several of Meloni’s actions as evidence of her broader alignment with the U.S. and other G7 allies: Italy’s withdrawal from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, her support for Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at mitigating the risk from China and, above all, her unwavering support for Ukraine even as other far-right leaders across Europe have at times opposed or impeded Western aid.

“We’ve found her to be very pragmatic with her approach to foreign policy, and she’s been constructive in Brussels and NATO, as well,” the official said. “One of the hallmarks of our foreign policy is to recognize that the world is interconnected, that what happens in Europe affects the Indo-Pacific and vice versa. Meloni understands that and has been right there with [Biden] pushing for a stronger American and European role in the Indo-Pacific.” Other White House aides have taken note of how Meloni has attacked the root causes of problems like migration, worked behind the scenes to help resolve sticking points among allies with at times conflicting views and communicated clearly about her views and intentions. “There are some allies we sometimes get surprised by with comments in the press,” the official said. “That’s never been an issue with Meloni.” (Hear that, PRESIDENT MACRON?) The roots of the surprisingly warm Biden-Meloni relationship, in fact, stem from an instance of effective direct communication between the two leaders. In February 2023, both were planning to visit Ukraine to mark the first anniversary of the war there. Biden’s trip, which was shrouded in secrecy until he had arrived safely in Kyiv, occurred one day before Meloni’s own trip there.

Meloni aides, upon seeing that Biden had visited, reached out to the White House to set up a meeting or call. The prime minister, Biden aides were told, was seeking out his impressions of what he’d just seen and looking to coordinate their approach around the one-year mark of the war. When aides weren’t able to arrange for them to meet at the train station once the president was back in Poland, Biden called Meloni on the phone. During that call, an impressed Biden invited Meloni to come to the White House. That meeting, which took place last July, sent a strong signal that the White House viewed Meloni as a traditional and reliable ally. And, aides say, she has proven as much: Officials were especially impressed with her work earlier this year to craft a compromise that got Hungary’s right-wing leader VIKTOR ORBÁN to finally sign off on a $54 billion aid package for Ukraine, according to two people familiar with internal conversations. Meloni’s skilled diplomacy behind the scenes, aides said, is also evident in her approach to migration. Rather than demagoguing the issue, Meloni has shown a seriousness about attacking “push factors” that have driven African migrants across the Mediterranean and into southern Europe. She has worked within the EU and beyond to overhaul the approach toward burden sharing and to build support for an International Monetary Fund loan package for Tunisia, which she asked Biden to back during a call last year. And he did. “She’s been interested in solving real challenges,” one official said. “That’s impressed people.”

snip

relationship with Biden.

We need to take men and women as they are and not how we would like them to be.

I would feel much better about this country.

Be specific.

If the number is zero then just say that.

She's also pro-Ukraine.

...than just killing individuals of any specific subgroup of the non-nazi population, I doubt there is archived data to answer your question.

Last edited Sat Dec 21, 2024, 10:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Interesting.

"Meloni has also used her power to target minority groups like the LGBTQ+ community, whom the prime minister derides as a “lobby” that is insidiously attempting to impose its “gender ideology” on her country. Shortly after assuming office, her government forbade mayors from issuing birth certificates to children born of surrogate mothers or to lesbian couples who used artificial insemination. In October, her coalition passed a law punishing people who have a baby via surrogacy anywhere in the world with a maximum penalty of two years in prison and fines of up to €1 million.

Data collected by Arcigay, Italy’s largest LGBTQ+ nongovernmental organization, finds a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes since Meloni came to power. The prime minister’s policies against the community, and her refusal to reject hostile comments made by members of her party — like Senate President Ignazio La Russa, who said he would be sorry to have a gay son, or Senator Lucio Malan, who shared a social media post equating gay men to “pedophiles” — has resulted in Italy coming in at 22nd out of 27 EU countries in ILGA-Europe’s annual ranking of respect for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
...
Teaming up with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Meloni oversaw the forging of landmark deals with Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt that funnel billions of euros to repressive regimes that keep migrants away from Europe by intercepting their boats, locking them in prisons or dumping them in the desert.

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-class-of-2025/giorgia-meloni/

More dangerous than Silvio Berlusconi ever was, since she has a bigger following and can convince others that she's mainstream.