The tête-à-tête, on the sidelines of a conference by the Sant’Egidio community on peace, lasted an hour. Around the Head of State, there is a “frank and demanding” discussion, while waiting to judge the Italian leader “on the acts”.
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A first meeting kept secret until the last minute. Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni saw each other on the Catimini, Sunday, October 23, at 8 p.m., in a private suite of the Villa Agrippina Gran Melia hotel, on the heights of Rome. The new head of the Italian government arrived through a service door, accompanied by a small delegation, when Emmanuel Macron was surrounded by around twenty people.
As if he was not obvious, this tête-à-tête between the far-right leader and the pro-European liberal lasted a good hour. He was held away from the cameras and “on the sidelines”, it is said at the Elysée, of a conference of the Sant’Egidio community on peace, in which the head of state participated at the end of afternoon. He had just pronounced an ode to Kantian peace and universalism in front of 2,500 people: “Peace is impure,” he said, explaining that she supposes “one step towards the other”, even In the direction of “the enemy”, in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Until the Italian government’s header leaves the Palazzo Chigi to join him, Emmanuel Macron was publicly ignoring the invitation made to him. Relatives of Giorgia Meloni had drew the imminence of an interview, without confirmation of the Elysée, where we put it had protocol constraints, before an audience with the Pope on Monday. The staging of this false suspense had started several days ago, in Paris, until the swearing in placing Emmanuel Macron at the foot of the wall. He happens to be, thus, the first head of state to speak in Rome with the postfacist leader.
embarrassment and prudence of the Elysée
Sign of embarrassment, the meeting did not give rise to any official photo on the French side. Only one cliché of the two political leaders, face to face in the night, was disseminated by the Twitter account of the President of the Republic. “In Europeans, in neighboring countries, in friendly peoples, with Italy we will have to continue all the work undertaken,” he commented. Around the head of state, there was a “frank and demanding” discussion, while waiting to judge Giorgia Meloni “on the acts”. “Relations between Italy and France are more important than those of their leaders,” reacted Emmanuel Macron to an Italian press agency.
The prudence of the Elysée contrasts with the satisfaction of the entourage of Meloni, where one welcomes “words ultimately encouraging on the part of the French”. “It had to be a quick coffee and it turned into a long cordial conversation with a clear convergence of views of the main European files,” said one of his relatives. A press release from the Council Presidency said, in the process, that the two leaders agreed to agree at European level, in accordance with their “reciprocal national interests”. They mentioned the energy crisis, defense, economic economic conditions, control of migratory flows and support for Ukraine.
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