Meloni in Kiev to Chair G7 Meeting, Macron Boycotts

Emmanuel Macron skipped the G7 meeting, the first during Italy’s presidency. The French president left the G7 during a video link “organized and led” from Kiev by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, surrounded by Ukrainian leader Zelensky, European Commission President von der Leyen, and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. France was represented by Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, while Macron was “very busy” at the agricultural fair, where he met with some leaders of French farmers’ unions.

French “boorishness” partially derailed Meloni’s mission, and signing the security agreement with Zelensky’s Ukraine immediately drew sharp criticism in Italy from leaders of the Five Star Movement. “What is the point of another Meloni defile in Kiev and a ten-year bilateral agreement signed with Zelensky?” asked Riccardo Ricciardi, vice president of the Five Star and head of the faction in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Marco Pellegrini, head of the Five Stars faction in the Defense Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, and Bruno Marton, head of the faction in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Senate. “One of two things: if we believe Minister Tajani, who admitted in Parliament that the agreement ‘has no legal force,’ we have a propaganda farce, a colossal mockery; if instead it is a serious matter, we should be worried, because entering into a ten-year military alliance with a country at constant risk of war with Russia means exposing Italy to the concrete risk of direct participation in war,” they said, adding: hope “we are not faced with a secret treaty that risks dragging Italy into war, but only another propaganda show from Meloni. Farce is better than tragedy.”