Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an "immediate" summit between the US, EU, and Western allies to discuss Ukraine following a heated White House meeting between Trump and President Zelenskyy.
The February 28 meeting ended without agreement on a minerals deal after escalating into a confrontation over US aid and peace deal conditions.
Meloni warned that Western division "makes us all weaker" as European leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented that "the free world needs a new leader," while European allies worry about being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war.
Just saying...it's fucking Trump and his genocidal narcissistic billionaire Nazis that are sucking Russian cock...There are millions of us agast and horrified at this goddamn heel turn to Russian scum...and fuck me lots of us in the US are dumber than dog shit with no ability for critical thought.
Sentiments of "most" Americans matters as much as "most" Russians. Useless equivalent of thoughts and prayers when it doesn't stop the people in charge.
Maybe not, but the majority of voters apparently support Trump - so effectively that means USA as a country supports Trump. (And thus the USA as a country is no longer reliable or trustworthy.)
Hard pass. He would just use the opportunity to rant at our diplomats like he did with Zelenskyy. We wouldn't want to sign any deals with a criminally insane dictator anyway.
The bond is broken, the ship has sailed. Time for us to pursue a Europe First strategy. Post haste, preferably.
And it's not just investments into military hardware we need to make but also pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, etc. We need to become independent as soon as possible.
The groundwork is there. We can do it if we really want. MEGA will beat MAGA, and screw Trump and his puppet master.
I hope so. A good step would be for the UK to rejoin the EU but that seems unlikely to happen in the next decade. But we need to build solidarity and resilience, and like you say, increase our independence as much as feasible
I am Italian and I beg the EU to ostracize Meloni and Orban as much as possible, especially in this crucial moment.
As fascists and Putin puppets just like Trump, their simple plan is stall things long enough for Ukraine to be in an even worse situation.
I am not Italian, rather swedish, but what I have seen from Meloni in reality is that she has taken a very firm stance against Putin and his war on Ukraine and has given huge amounts of military equipment (scroll down to Italy to see what military equipment they have given) and and money to Ukraine. Meloni has never stood in the way of political decisions to support Ukraine or sanctions against Russia to my knowledge, rather has been at the forefront of implementing them and has continuously condemned Putin and Russia's agression. Exactly in what way is Meloni a puppet of Putin?
We give a lot because we produce a lot.
Italy's arms export grew 86% between 2019 and 2024.
And while we are too weak to be openly against our major trade partner, Germany, she is also balancing her act with our second trade partner, the USA and trying to explain her electorate that she is still the one they voted for who called Orbán an exemplary leader, all while Salvini, another prominent member of her government, screamed for a Peace Prize to Trump as soon as he appeared to give in to Putin.
Right now Starmer and Meloni are what is dragging everyone else's feet on a United EU Defense plan and an EU-led diplomatic move towards Russia.
In the 100 years old tradition of fascist parties in Italy, she is also subject to the whims of much more powerful actors internally and externally.
I would start from removing dollar reserves from european banks. The value of money is only when people believe it have value. So if US money won't have any value Europe won't need US help.
I approve. As an American, I have been trying to swap my savings for Euros, because it feels like that the American Dollar will hyperinflate. However, I have a concern:
Musk is likely to try to install a Muskcoin and create a X Everything app, so that he can control the money of Americans. The EU will need to offer Euro banking services in the Blue States to oppose the establishment of Muskcoin. Also, blacklist American billionaires from European fiscal institutions, such as not accepting the swap of Musk's dollars for Euros or EU properties.
DOGE will fuck with the FDIC, force banks out of business. Musk tweets "Don't worry, X has secured a contract from this great administration and have started XBank! All accounts and money from all US-based banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions will be migrated to XBank. Download the app immediately. X account is required to access the XBank app. This will be the only way to access your money so get your account today!"
That wouldn't happen under current cost of living conditions and with this administration. And if it does happen at some point, well that's the positive path out of this mess no? I don't think there's a solution that doesn't involve getting most Americans decent paying work.
I understand that Meloni is struggling with cognitive dissonance here because she loves Trump and the American far right but also recognizes Russia as the obvious enemy to Europe that they are (and thereby making Ukraine our natural ally).
But the time for courting is over. America has become a hostile nation and they might actually be our enemy soon.
Increase European integration and federalization. Increase defense spending and fund a European MIC. Organize into a joint European army. This and only this can be our way forward or we will be crushed between two fascist superpowers.
Meloni and her government do not perceive Putin as an enemy AT ALL.
One of the most prominent members of her government even said Putin should receive a Nobel Peace prize.
Meloni and Orban are just fascists, in the case of Meloni even belonging to the excised appendix of a literal Fascist party.
I couldn't agree more. I'm an outsider to Europe, unfortunately, and find myself as a Canadian increasingly seeing America in much the way Ukraine must have felt about Russia in 2010. Europe is the last hope for democracy and the rule of law in the world right now.
It's actually worse. I think Meloni is not in the game for power or wealth (at least, not mainly), she is someone who is in for her ideas. The problem is that her ideas are shitty neofascism.
Same in Slovenia when it comes to far right. They were drooling over Trump (our PM at the time even congratulated Trump on winning 2020 elections before the official results) and also painted themselves as biggest Ukraine supporters. Now I'm not sure where they stand and how they rationalize the situation, since I'm off X and Facebook.
She is just trying to act as interface between Europe (edit) and US. No idea why Italian government is always convinced to have a special relationship with the US, most likely because they are non threading to US hegemony as Germany or France are.
Europe really needs to beef up its defense industries and whatnot. America's unreliability is becoming an existential threat and it's clear that Trump and Co will be extremely opportunistic and quick to align with Russia.
I love reading about people not knowing the EU military industry writing about how it's somehow weak.
Newsflash: it's not. We don't talk or write about it 'cause it's sensitive data. We protect sensitive data.
Our armies may not be strong, but our military industry is.
Your industries can't even supply artillery and basic equipment to Ukraine, at least nowhere at the level needed to win the war. This is well-known. European leaders have been harping on the need to upgrade capacities.
So, newsflash: sorry, your military industry isn't up to par yet. The potential is there. Many of the technologies are there. The actual support and capacity to make the most out of that potential is lacking.
This isn't in any way a controversial opinion. The reality on the ground with constant shortages and European leaders themselves acknowledging the military industry needs more support is well known.
Unfortunately, that next recession, which I believe likely becomes a depression, is going to slam everyone. The EU, USA, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea etc. all have major challenges and weaknesses.
The thing is, the US has 100,000 troops and god knows how much military materiel in Europe. America leaves NATO, you think they are just going to pick up all their people and stuff and go because we ask them to politely?
I think you'd have to play psychology there to be honest. Next time Trump asks for payments for the troops, for example, you might wanna say "actually, we were thinking you should be paying rent."
It's a really messy situation. While the EU/USA are allies, those troops do increase security. But there is already a threat simply by those troops being there, and if the USA becomes a full blown enemy yeah it's a grave threat.
Europe really needs to beef up its defense industries and whatnot.
Europe is already spending billions of billions in its defense. Europe countries combined already spend more money in war than russia. Every country in the world (russia, china, usa, europe and everyone else) need to cut the military budget and use public money for something more useful.
A stand down on war period would be wonderful. Unfortunately, as long as aggressors are on the board, you have to maintain a defensive posture. Europe's deficiencies have been made clear but their on-going struggles to supply Ukraine. Russia may spend less, but like China, their lower per capita income in some ways helps them get more out of their money (thankfully, corruption and other issues also nerf Russia).
Italy needs to understand that thinking you can reason with Trump makes Europe weaker.
In fact, this works with all countries. He’s a literal baby. He doesn’t understand or want to hear your reasoning because he knows he’s right. As soon as everybody understands that, the quicker they can get to the task of isolating the US as much as possible.
Italian here, I feel ashamed of our PM. It is even more ridiculous how she endorsed the relationship with US just a couple of weeks ago and then Trump started doing even more shitty things.
I am surprised that after all what have been happening in just the last weeks any entity would consider Trump’s words to have any value of any kind, they end having no reliability nor accountability, how could be worth any reasoning attempt?
The Secretary of State implements foreign policy but doesn't decide it.
Honestly, if I were Rubio I would have declined the Secretary of State spot. At the moment, I doubt it does much to help any Presidential ambitions he might have and he probably had more actual power in the Senate rather than at State.
Everyone everywhere needs to boycott and move away from American products and services as much as possible. Do not travel to America. Cancel your Netflix, do not use Airbnb, avoid American wherever you can.
Wouldn't be surprised to see a headline soon saying that discussion broke down too.
"Don't tell me how to feel. We're gonna feel great. You know what? I didn't hear a thank you from you. We're gonna put the world's biggliest Olive Garden right here in America's 53th state, how about that, Meloni? It'll be the best deal."
It's Giorgia.
Georgia is a nation fighting against a corrupt government and Russia to remain in the EU orbit and potentially entering it as a Member State, they don't deserve being associated with a fascist.