BRUSSELS It’s also spring in Brussels. And so, unexpectedly, the dozens of accusations and frictions that have divided Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron in recent months are beginning to melt like snow in the sun. Or so it seems when, arriving in the morning at the European Council in the Belgian capital, he speaks – not without a little satisfaction – of the “ongoing contacts” with the Elysee for a face-to-face meeting.
The meeting, which was requested by the French (and therein lies the satisfaction of the prime minister), was held in the evening, immediately after the end of the EU council meeting. About an hour and forty minutes of face-to-face confrontation. Without their respective delegations, who were left waiting at the bar. Precisely where Olaf Scholz is alone, the protagonist of the so-called “Normandy formation” that caused the last confrontation on the Rome-Paris route on February 9. That is, when Meloni launched his j’accuse against the French president, accused of having been “inappropriate” for inviting only Scholz to dine at the Elysée with Volodymyr Zelensky. A “misunderstanding” that we tried to forget yesterday in the name of the “necessary and inevitable proximity” that has always been evident in dozens of strategic files, especially defense and aerospace. In fact, according to Italian diplomatic sources, apart from the broken words that “sometimes” separated them, both are aware of the Italo-French “manifest destiny”.
THE DOSSIERS
Rather than burying the hatchet, however, Rome and Paris seem to be turning in the same direction. On the table of what is the first bilateral meeting in five months of the legislature (unique in the history of the Republic), Meloni and Macron are now focusing on the Mediterranean and the need to “secure the southern front of Europe”. A request forcefully presented by the Prime Minister in Brussels. Not only when he intervened during dinner with the leaders to call for “quick and concrete action” against human traffickers, but also when – standing face to face with Macron – he held a bilateral meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio coast An additional “block” with respect to the dialogues and edges already obtained with the rest of the Mediterranean protagonists, especially the Greek Kyriakos Mītsotakīs.
Returning to the French president, the pondered axis of Europe’s southern front is not only looking at Tunisia on the boil (any pressure on the IMF will be carried out under the “European aegis”, they guarantee), Italian interests in the Mediterranean eastern or the more generic Mattei plan, but especially in Libya. The idea is, in fact, to establish a sort of peace around the Tripoli and Benghazi governments, limiting Putin’s role. Or at least try to leave aside the “different trajectories” (economic and political) which, without a doubt, have contributed to transforming the country into a powder. Wagner or no Wagner. Also because while Paris is set on fire by half a million protesters disputing the pension reform desired by Macron, the Élysée must avoid any small crack, both internal and external.
ANTI-AUSTERITY
Not just Mediterranean, though. Exactly one hundred and fifty-one days after the informal meeting on the terrace of the Gran Melià hotel in the capital – the waste of which turned into an unprecedented diplomatic confrontation at the port of call of a ship in the ONG-, Meloni and Macron almost meet. “forced” to make friends also by the usual variable geometry he chooses with Berlin.
In other words, trying to achieve that partial German isolation that has repeatedly come in handy, and which at this stage could lead to a reform of the “anti-austerity” Stability Pact and an agreement on the balance between growth and inflation to achieve The Today’s Euro summit (in which Cristine Lagarde will participate), especially with reference to the growth of interest rates. Or, later, the establishment of a new EU sovereign fund. A convergence that cannot be zero balance. Also because the French intend to ask for Italian support for the marking of nuclear technologies among those compatible for green hydrogen by Brussels. An essential node for Paris and that in Palazzo Chigi can be very useful to remedy the delay of the car energy transition party (especially biofuels) that matured during the transition period between the government of Mario Draghi and that of Meloni . A key to understanding, this too, that it would be an integral part of that Quirinal pact that was never fully implemented. And who knows, for once, a swallow does not make spring.
Source : IL Messaggero
