Italy's Meloni Cited As Backing Ukraine NATO Protections Without Membership

Credit: Zumapress

I’m hoping this is just garbage reporting from Bloomberg, which has a history of garbage reporting. There are only two actual quotes from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in here and only one of them directly references the issue:

Speaking on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, she said “we need to think about more durable solutions” than sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

[…]

“It’s a different thing than entering NATO, but it implies extending the coverage that NATO countries have also to Ukraine,” Meloni said.

Unless she says otherwise, I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. She’s a Eurosceptic firestorm who blew through the elections with populist messaging underpinned by conservative principles and assumed office in 2022. She and allies like Lega’s Matteo Salvini (Deputy Prime Minister) have held perhaps Europe’s hardest stance against illegal and unregulated immigration. Their refusal to bend has paid dividends: Italy’s right-leaning parties are expanding not just in the Italian Parliament, but in the European Union also.

Ukraine was a factor in the fall of the Draghi government so perhaps, if the quote is accurate, Meloni is measuring her words with that in mind. Still, it seems out of step for a celebrated leader considered almost conservative enough by American standards and outright “fascist” by Europe’s leftists.

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