“We must know that returning to being protagonists of history and of our own destiny is not easy, it is not painless, and it is not free.”
Meloni argued the bloc should refocus on core principles and national identities. “The real challenge is a Europe that does less, but does it better,” she said. “After all, ‘United in diversity’ is the motto of the European Union, and I believe it is a motto we should all truly draw inspiration from.”
Her remarks echoed those of former European Central Bank President and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who told the same audience last Friday that the EU must learn to defend itself in a world increasingly shaped by war and “great-power” competition.
In the same vein, Meloni also called on the bloc to take greater responsibility for its own defense, warning that the continent can no longer rely on the U.S.
“After decades in which we outsourced European security to the United States — at the cost of an inevitable political dependency — we must be willing to pay the price of our freedom and our independence,” she said. “Only those who are able to defend themselves are truly free in the choices they make.”
Meloni said her political tradition had long raised the issue, even when it was unpopular. “We spoke of the need for a European pillar of NATO, of equal dignity to the American one, at a time when these issues were not fashionable,” she said.
