Her office reinforced that message on Tuesday, stressing alignment with European partners on the need to “preserve civilian infrastructure,” following Trump’s repeated threats to target Iranian power plants and bridges. At the end of March, Italy refused to allow a U.S. bomber mission to land at a base in Sicily en route to the Middle East, though Meloni stressed that the episode did not represent a conflict with Washington.
A bit of conflict with Washington might not go amiss, though. Meloni’s allies see her previously rosy relationship with Trump as a liability, blaming it for the referendum loss.
“Until [the Iran war happened] we were ahead, then there was a dramatic fall,” a coalition lawmaker told POLITICO, pinning referendum defeat on the war in the Middle East. “For better or worse, in the collective imagination, the right was associated with Donald Trump,” he added.
Nicola Lupo, a professor of public law at LUISS University, said the referendum and polling suggest that alignment with Trump carries political costs, adding that across Europe it has become “toxic — even on the right — to be seen as close to Trump.”
The government ruled out early elections amid global instability and energy shocks. But Meloni’s political future still depends on how the international crisis develops — and her perceived proximity to its architects — as much as it does on ability to keep her coalition united and proposed changes to electoral law that would deliver the winning party a bigger parliamentary majority.