Meloni publically states that she's against Italian
participation in the Beijing-sponsored Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Her administration
has attempted to patch-up differences with EU/NATO members France and with the
Washington Establishment – which has not been always thrilled with the
trajectory of the Italian Right, especially the Salvini-led Lega Party, which
is part of Meloni's coalition.
There are those that entertained a deal with China as a means
to triangulate, and steer Italy into a less dependent, less dominated position vis-à-vis
the United States. And yet, with the intensification of geopolitics and the
crisis surrounding The Ukraine War and NATO's flirtations with Indo-Pacific
theatre – Meloni doesn't want to alienate Italy or antagonize Washington.
I'm sure coalition partners Salvini and Berlusconi are less
than thrilled with her leadership and view her as tepid and even weak, but
she's following the path set out by Marine LePen in France, in trying to make
her Far-Right politics respectable and just within the spectrum of the
mainstream. Unlike LePen she's actually in power and thus faced with navigating
these waters. It's one thing to campaign as an ideologue, it's something else
to actually govern.
In the case of BRI, I'm sure her strategy is pretty simple –
kick the can down the road and hope the problem goes away in the near future.
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