Meloni-Macron crisis, the Quirinale tip on Mattarella’s plays

The echo of the sparks between Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron also reached, of course, the Quirinale. Sergio Mattarella, since taking office of the new center-right government, has privileged contacts on the Rome-Paris axis, with a face-to-face meeting right after the oath of office, and made a phone call to the Élysée after the migrant crisis and on the Ong ship to bring the situation back. But now, informs La Stampa, the president of the Republic will act differently after Meloni’s attack on Macron for having excluded her from the summit organized with Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, and Olaf Scholz, number one of France.

“We are not the right interlocutors” is the position taken by Colle after the Italian prime minister’s attack on the French president, even though Mattarella is concerned about relations between the two nations. “He cares a lot. He is convinced that an operational link between Italy and France can be of great help to Europe in general and to us in particular. There is an interweaving of economic conveniences that suggest going hand in hand to form a common front against certain attitudes of the so-called ‘frugal’ northern Europeans”, explains Ugo Magri, a well-known quirinalist.

And Magri himself discovers the roles of the Quirinal: “This time, no initiative or repair is expected from Mattarella. She will be the first to play her cards with Macron and in Europe. As good as the climate with Mattarella is, according to some excellent ones, Meloni would not tolerate feeling under guardianship. At best, he would take good advice. Mattarella’s implicit invitation is ‘to overcome the impasse that accompanies these commitments. Let’s apply them thoroughly. Feeling, knowing, talking must not be understood as forms of political surrender, but as acts due in light of the Treaty of the Quirinale’”. In short, Italy and France must stop teasing each other.