Summary
After a tense Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, European leaders strongly reaffirmed their support for Ukraine.
Officials, including Germany’s Scholz and France’s Macron, emphasized Ukraine’s right to defend itself, while EU foreign policy chief Kallas called for Europe to take the lead.
British Prime Minister Starmer will host international leaders to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, Hungary’s Orban sided with Trump, claiming concerns about EU unity on Ukraine aid.
Many European leaders now question U.S. reliability as an ally.
Giorgia Meloni is trying to position herself as a mediator between America and Europe, which honestly I think is a fool’s errand, but it is in line with her Atlanticist foreign policy.
I would have personally preferred a real, firm, statement towards Ukraine’s support but until we’ll have people like Salvini - a Putin’s lover - and his ‘Lega Nord’ party in the government it is infeasible to expect it.
At the same time FdI (Meloni’s party) has historically been pretty pro-ukraine, so I will be very surprised if something is not going to happen in the next few days.
Remember that this quote is from Crosetto, the current Minister of Defence, just a few days ago: “Peace, however, must not mean humiliating a free people who have done nothing but die and sacrifice to defend themselves.”
I’m not in line with their national policies - by a wide margin - but currently Meloni’s party and the Partito Democratico are the only pro-ukraine voices in Italian politics with some weight
It’s depressing.