State visit likely benefits Italy’s Giorgia Meloni more than it does China
- Unlike Hungary’s Orban, the prime minister plays a much more delicate balancing act between Beijing and Brussels, according to Italian analyst
By most accounts, Giorgia Meloni’s trip to China has been a success. The Italian prime minister’s state visit coincided with the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death, and Chinese state-run media reports have been effusive about her pitch for Italy to serve as a bridge between China and Europe.
However, the trip may have exacerbated her feud with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose re-election she opposed. As an anti-China hawk with another five years in office, it’s doubtful von der Leyen would let the Italian leader conduct freelance diplomacy for the European Union.
She was already furious at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who took advantage of his rotational EU presidency to make his unsanctioned “peace mission” to Moscow and Beijing in July.
Meloni probably achieved more from the visit by raising her profile as a world leader than what the Chinese might have hoped to gain from an improved relationship with Rome.
She got away without much criticism from the Americans who have been too distracted in the Middle East and their own high-wired lead-up to the presidential election, according to Angelo Paratico, an Italian novelist and journalist.
“Her trip to China has a cost, she is already on very bad terms with von der Leyen having voted against her,” Paratico, also a former Hong Kong-based entrepreneur, told My Take.