Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (left) and Donald Trump, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. YOAN VALAT / AFP
While she has faced difficulties in the streets due to demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians – protests that have drawn hundreds of thousands across Italy since the end of August – the far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appears determined to keep her country in step with Washington. First, she has presented Italy as part of the peace camp dedicated to ending the war in Gaza at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt – a result, in her opinion, of the efforts of right-wing parties worldwide as opposed to the left, which she has readily depicted as violent and aligned with the Palestinian group Hamas.
Second, at a time when her country's industry is being threatened by US tariffs, Meloni has defended the idea that the dividends from her alignment with US President Donald Trump are tied to Italy's very identity.
On Friday, October 10, on Instagram and X, Meloni claimed that Trump had "restored" the celebration of Columbus Day, which was instituted to honor the arrival of Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) in America, through a symbolic presidential "proclamation" signed the previous day.
