Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will attend the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States, alongside other European far-right figures, including Éric Zemmour, a former French presidential candidate known for his xenophobia.
Meloni’s presence at the event in Washington DC on Monday was confirmed by his office and will be seen as a strengthening of relations with the US president-elect.
The Italian leader made a flying visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida earlier this month, during which Trump described her as “a fantastic woman” who “really takes the world by storm.” ‘Europe’.
The two men met for the first time in Paris in early December for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Meloni, who leads the Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, is a longtime Trump supporter. Before coming to power in October 2022, she regularly attended his political rallies and praised his policies as a model for Italy.
She also knew how to establish good relations with Joe Biden and strengthen Italy’s Atlanticist reputation. At a recent press conference, she said she had a “very strong relationship” with Trump and a “great relationship” with Biden. “But having two conservative leaders can further strengthen convergence. This is added value for Italy and the EU,” she said.
Observers said shared views on issues ranging from immigration to abortion, as well as Meloni’s close relationship with Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, could make her his main point of contact in Europe.
Trump broke with tradition by inviting several foreign leaders to his inauguration ceremony, which will take place inside the Capitol due to cold temperatures.
From Europe, Meloni will be joined by Zemmour, an ultranationalist and xenophobic polemicist convicted of hate speech and proponent of the far-right “great replacement” theory, as well as Tom Van Grieken of the Belgian far-right Vlaams party. Belang. , and Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland’s national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The presence of Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the German far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), was confirmed by the party on Thursday. The invitation followed Musk’s support of the party and a discussion with co-leader Alice Weidel on his social media platform, X, which raised further concerns about his ambition to influence European politics.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s anti-immigration Reform Party, will also attend. Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orbán, another Trump supporter, was invited but will not attend, while Argentine populist leader Javier Milei, who visited Rome in December for Atreju, the annual festival organized by the Meloni Brothers from Italy, will be present.
During the recent press conference, Meloni defended Trump and Musk. Asked about Trump’s remarks on Greenland and the Panama Canal, Meloni said she believed they were messages to other world powers rather than hostile claims against the two countries.
In response to Musk’s attacks on several European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Meloni rejected the idea that his comments constituted “dangerous interference.”
“The problem is when rich people use their resources to finance political parties, associations and representatives around the world in order to influence the political choices of nation states,” Meloni said. “That’s not what Musk does.”
