Giorgia Meloni’s soft power — flirting (with politics)
Most of the world’s leaders are falling over themelves to get closer to the Italian prime minister. How does she do it?
Romance was in the air last week. Sadly for Keir Starmer, whatever his claim to being the living embodiment of Mark Darcy, the heart of Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, was already taken. This became clear when the subject of immigration return hubs came up during their joint press conference in Tirana.
“We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it, and we said no,” Rama said, “because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love.”
A day later, on the red carpet of the EU summit in the Albanian capital, the 6ft 7in former basketball player revealed just how smitten he is, theatrically dropping to his knee and clasping his hands in deferential praise before the object of his affection: Giorgia Meloni. “Edi, no!” the Italian prime minister exclaimed with well-practised humility, before inviting him in for a warm embrace.
Meloni’s hugs, hand holding and hilarious moments with the world’s most powerful men are becoming de rigueur. Last month, a day after her love-in with Donald Trump and JD Vance at the White House, the US vice-president flew to Rome to talk tariffs and drop in on the ailing Pope Francis. When he arrived at the Chigi Palace, the premier’s office, Meloni was waiting to greet him. “I’ve been missing you,” she joked affectionately.
Was the 48-year-old’s flirting just naturally tactile and simpatica or does she realise that laughing at the jokes made by powerful men will get you that trade agreement you want?
When she gazed deeply into the eyes of Elon Musk last September at an awards dinner in Manhattan, it certainly seemed perfectly timed to capitalise on Trump’s imminent return to the White House. Meloni was there to receive an award, and when Musk presented her with it, she praised his “precious genius” after he claimed, cringingly, that Meloni was “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside”.
For those left wondering, the tech mogul later clarified on X: “I was there with my Mom. There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni.” His mother then got in on the act, adding: “I went back to the hotel with Elon.”
The reaction from Team Musk gave voice to the insinuations that go viral every time Meloni gets touchy-feely with world leaders, from Starmer to Narendra Modi, whose meetings with the Italian whip up Indian social media and prompt the Brangelina-like meme “Melodi”.
Since that evening with Musk, Meloni has been gushingly singled out for praise by Trump - “She’s a fantastic leader and person,” he said in December - was the only European leader invited to Trump’s inauguration in January and has been labelled by some as “Europe’s Trump whisperer”. As The Times asked in December: “Has Giorgia Meloni made herself the new queen of Europe?”
That seemed a plausible question following last summer’s G7 summit, which she hosted in Puglia. After a year of charming world leaders one-on-one she suddenly had a room full of them to deal with, risking fits of jealousy from anyone who thought they were Meloni’s favourite.
The Argentinian president Javier Milei - all ruffled hair, sideburns and attitude - took a proactive approach, hugging Meloni when he arrived and whispering a joke in her ear. Cracking up, the Italian clutched both his forearms as she leant in, shaking with laughter. Rishi Sunak - remember him? - also went for the big entrance befitting the very special relationship he had enjoyed with Meloni since she showed him something hilarious on her phone at a Nato summit in 2023, sending them both into paroxysms of giggles. But as he went in for the double kiss and grabbed her hands, Meloni pulled back, slightly on the defensive. Was she simply surprised, or did she recoil at the optics of embracing a dead man walking? Is there an element of political calculation behind her bonhomie?
If so, perhaps Meloni is following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher, who was known to drop her steely facade and flirt with male leaders. But what if Meloni directs her charm at all genders, and it just so happens most heads of government are men?
Her sister act with the head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, suggests as much. The pair got on famously in 2023 as they inspected flood-ravaged towns in Emilia Romagna from a helicopter and visited the president of Tunisia to convince him to stop migrants crossing. And last Sunday Meloni sat between Vance and von der Leyen, as the EU head acknowledged the Italian prime minister’s role in organising a summit held at the Chigi Palace to “build bridges” between the US and Europe.
Moreover, not all men get the Giorgia treatment. Emmanuel Macron was on the receiving end of a vicious death stare from the Italian at the G7 after a stream of diplomatic spats. What enmity there is seems to have been reciprocated by Macron, who, in March, advised Meloni to follow in the footsteps of her predecessor Mario Draghi and make Italy “a great European country” - a statement that may have infuriated her.
Relations deteriorated further when Meloni was apparently excluded from Ukraine talks involving Macron and other leaders and hit rock bottom in Tirana on Friday when Macron accused Meloni of spreading disinformation about talks.
Fabio Rampelli, an MP in Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party who has known her since she was a teenager, promised she was not a flirt. “The truth is that world leaders are not used to having a working relationship with someone who is informal, who has not been changed by politics and who says things the way they are,” he said.
Rampelli, who at 64 is 16 years older than Meloni, mentored her when she became an activist at the tender age of 15 with the youth wing of the post-fascist MSI party, which later morphed into the Brothers of Italy. Her strong Roman accent, he believes, is testament to her upbringing in the city’s working-class Garbatella district.
“Her sense of humour, her ability to poke fun, comes from being very Roman, because she grew up in council houses, not on a board of directors,” he said. “She has an irresistible self-irony that opens doors.”
A good definition of Roman humour is the ability to deflate the hypocrisy and pompousness of power with one stinging remark - something to do with living next door to the Vatican over the centuries. Meloni’s working-class backstory is, however, not totally convincing. She forgets to mention that her paternal grandfather was an accomplished radio drama director and her grandmother was the famous Italian actress Zoe Incrocci, who dubbed the voice of Marilyn Monroe.
But what Meloni did acquire growing up in Garbatella was the ability to deliver a gag fast, to have la battuta pronta - the ready wit that is key to Roman humour. When a left-wing regional president, Vincenzo De Luca, was taped last year calling Meloni “a bitch”, she strode up to him at a public event, stuck our her hand and said: “President De Luca, that bitch Meloni, how are you?”
Justifying the comment, she later said: “People are shocked because a woman defends herself. I am a woman and I demand the same respect others get.”
Her feminist credentials got a further boost in 2023 when she threw out her TV presenter partner - and the father of her daughter - after he was taped proposing a threesome to a female colleague and asking her: “Can I touch my balls while I speak to you?”
In May last year Meloni claimed there was no solidarity between women because “they are victims of a narrative that suggests they will never be good enough to compete with men, and that leads them naturally to compete among themselves”.
Yet she also opposes female quotas in companies and in parliament, handing only six posts to women in her 24-strong cabinet, and drew fire from equality groups when she adopted the masculine form of her title, calling herself “il” rather than “la” presidente del consiglio.
Feminist icon or not, her tough persona has won plaudits in Italy, where politics is personal and where prime ministers are judged on who they are as much as what they do.
Until his cockiness was seen as tipping over into arrogance, the former centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi won fans thanks to his sharp, slight, sarcastic and typically Tuscan wit. Before Renzi, Silvio Berlusconi’s brand of humour revolved around sex, which meant he would shout out, “Who’s touching my arse?” when he gathered for group photos with female supporters.
That earned the three-time Italian prime minister, who died in 2023, the respect of a certain demographic made up of middle-aged male voters, until they decided he was partying a bit too hard, even as Italy’s limping economy threatened to flatline in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Before he resigned in 2011, Berlusconi made a 31-year-old Giorgia Meloni his minister for youth - the youngest ministerial appointment in Italy - and referred to her as “la piccolina” ("the little one") during a rally. Over a decade later, the tables turned when she won an election in 2022, became prime minister and brought in Berlusconi as a junior coalition partner. But when she refused to give a ministerial post to one of his MPs, Berlusconi flew into a rage, becoming the exception to the parade of male politicians who have fallen for Meloni’s charms since.
Listing everything he faulted in her, the 86-year-old said Meloni was “patronising, overbearing, arrogant” and “offensive”. Berlusconi wrote his list in large letters on a piece of paper, then handed it to a supporter, ensuring lurking photographers would spot it. Contradicting Musk, Modi, Milei and von der Leyen, the ageing media mogul wrote: “She is someone you can’t get along with.”
The Times
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