Rome, June 3, 2025. The sun declines on the burning roofs of the trastevere. At Palazzo Chigi, time seems suspended. Under the sparkling gilding and the centuries-old frescoes of the headquarters of the Italian government, a room is about to accommodate a discreet but decisive tête-à-tête. Emmanuel Macron enters, stretched silhouette, dark suit cut like armor. Opposite, Giorgia Meloni, dressed in a black jacket with a military style, awaits him, right, impassive. Nothing is left to chance. This appointment scheduled for an hour finally stretches out on three. In this closed door Romain, Macron sends a strong signal: he leaves Paris to come and seek in Rome an ally that has become essential. A rare gesture. A scene that says a lot. This dinner is not a formality, it is a rocking. The moment when Italy regains its strategic weight. And where Giorgia Meloni wins, slowly but surely, as the new big in Europe.
After having revived its economy and slowing down massive immigration, it is on the diplomatic field that the president of the council now deploys her energy. A detail that the chancelleries did not fail to note: in January 2025, she was the only European leader to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump. While Paris and Berlin sulk the event, Rome sends a clear signal to Washington: it is now necessary to count on Italy. Since coming to power, Meloni has weakened his canvas beyond her borders. It is displayed alongside Elon Musk. She also establishes close ties with Trumpist circles, American conservatives, Argentinian libertarians – in the forefront of which Javier Milei, president “Rock’n’libéral” by Buenos Aires, of which she is very close.
A right that assumes
Behind this strategy, a simple idea: to replace Rome at the center of the international map. Make the eternal city a bridge between continental Europe and America. And it works. Italy has regained lost status since the Cold War. Meloni understood that it is no longer enough to exist to weigh – you have to speak to all the centers of gravity in the world. She simply started with the most powerful.
His priorities: identity, sovereignty, order and the defense of the family
Giorgia Meloni does not abandon the old continent. She built, Pierre after Pierre, a continental right. His priorities: identity, sovereignty, order and defense of the family. His first circle? Poland du Pis, Hungary of Viktor Orban, Austria of the FPö, the Netherlands of Geert Wilders. In France, she respects Éric Zemmour for her ideological constancy, is wary of Marine Le Pen, deemed too much on the left, and displays a certain proximity to Marion Maréchal – married to Vincenzo Sofo, Italian politician and member of Fratelli d’Italia, the party founded by Meloni.
In the shadows, the negotiations advance to create a “Supergroup” in the European Parliament, bringing together the forces of the ECR group – of which Fratelli d’Italia is a member – and those of identity and democracy, dominated by the RN. Objective: to supplant the Renew Europe liberals and establish themselves as the third political force in Strasbourg, even the second in certain scenarios. But beyond parliamentary labels, it is an ideological war that Meloni is preparing. An assumed right, which no longer apologizes for existing. In a few months, she went audible in Warsaw, credible in Vienna, essential in Brussels. “It holds its line, whatever it costs. In 2025, it is enough to make it credible – and dreaded ”judges a French minister who closely follows these negotiations.
Pragmatism and firmness
In barely two years, Giorgia Meloni changed the look that Europe had on her. Perceived at its beginnings as a populist threat – “Postfascist”then titled many French media – she is now considered a serious partner. Emmanuel Macron’s Roman getaway is the last illustration, a symbol of a tilting at work in Brussels. Its positions no longer arouse any shoulder rise, but debates – sometimes even membership. In Berlin, where we feared an Orban clone, we discover a leader who plays the European game, in his own way, without a crash. Renamed all form of provocation, Meloni cultivates an image of reliable head of government: capable of negotiating, holding, lasting.
In 2025, Meloni became the matrix of a new right: uninhibited, disciplined, formidably effective
Pragmatism and firmness, this is the Meloni method. She speaks loudly, but governs straight, drawing a much more pragmatic line than expected. No budgetary showdown with Brussels, no theatrical outing of the euro or treaties, it advances safe, strategic, without causing any useless crisis. On the economy, it reassures the markets. On Europe, she plays the balancingist: criticism of federalist drifts, but faithful to substantive commitments. And on identity issues, it does not be flexible: immigration, sovereignty, school, culture. A rare strategy that pays. In 2025, Meloni was no longer just the owner of Italy. She has become the matrix of a new right: uninhibited, disciplined, formidably effective. She did not take power by shouting. She conquered it by governing.
