Meloni will be welcomed with ‘all respect’, says Marseille. Scholz and Meloni have already met, but an official reception has not yet arrived. “Now the political agendas will also be compared.”
Heads of state have a lot to discuss. On the agenda is the war in Ukraine, cooperation within Europe, but also the warm ties that Meloni maintains with the Hungarian premier Orban. “Germany doesn’t like it very much.”
Right radical cut
In the German media, Meloni is portrayed as a post-fascist leader, someone of the radical right wing. In his election campaign he has repeatedly criticized the compelling role he sees Germany playing in Europe. “Meloni prefers to talk about free European peoples instead of further European integration, something Scholz is fighting for,” says Marseille.
Meloni has now been President of the Council of Italy for more than a hundred days, which makes the first appointment with Germany with a sumptuous delay. The Germans blame this on busy schedules and deny that her ideas played any part in it. “Anyone who knows a little bit about Germany knows that there is an agenda behind all this,” says Marseille. «People waited to see how Meloni would behave as Prime Minister. In terms of content, she takes up many themes from her predecessor Draghi, which puts Germany a little more at ease’.
Collision course
Even Germany itself has an interest in not entering a collision course with Italy, thinks Marseilles. The regional cooperation between northern Italy, southern Germany and Austria is one of the strongest economic partnerships in Europe. ‘Moreover, Germany believes that ties with Italy need to be strengthened, especially now that the UK has disappeared due to Brexit and ties with France are weak.
That also makes this meeting a “balancing act,” says Marseille. ‘Scholz now looks more at Italy than at France and this is striking because Meloni herself has often expressed her anti-European sentiment. And Scholz is not the warm personality who can turn this into a pleasant meeting. The question is whether it will be a chilled match or a relaxed one.’