Bardella is interested but her strategy might not work outside Italian politics
When Giorgia Meloni arrived at her first EU leaders’ summit as Italy’s prime minister in late 2022, many in Brussels expected trouble.
The leader of a party with post-fascist roots had campaigned against migration and what she portrayed as an overreaching European Union.
Diplomats wondered whether Italy, a founding member of the bloc and its third-largest economy, was about to become their next headache in European politics.
This Thursday, as Meloni meets with French President Emmanuel Macron for a closely watched bilateral summit on the French Riviera, the picture could hardly look more different.
