By Crispian Balmer
BARI, Italy (Reuters) – Since taking office in 2022, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has proven herself to be a pragmatic partner on key international issues, allaying fears that she would be a dogmatic conservative unwilling to compromise.
But at the Group of Seven summit she organized in southern Italy this week, Meloni showed that she had some red lines dear to her nationalist camp that she was willing to fight for, especially issues related to family and reproductive rights.
In the run-up to the June 13-15 summit, attention had been firmly focused on securing an agreement on a multibillion-dollar loan to Ukraine, using frozen Russian assets and devising ways to create a level playing field in trade with China.
A broad consensus was reached on both issues and hailed as proof of Western unity in the face of global challenges.
Then, unexpectedly, diplomats revealed that Italy had demanded the removal of the specific reference to “safe and legal abortion” from the final G7 declaration and also wanted to soften the language on vaccination financing.
Despite being isolated, Meloni got what he wanted on both issues, using Italy’s position as rotating president of the club of rich countries to lead negotiations wherever he wanted, diplomats who followed the discussions told Reuters.
“Meloni is against abortion and always has been, so that was his red line and, honestly, we pushed from the beginning. But when the presidency said ‘no,’ that was it,” said a European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Like many arch-conservative groups in Europe and the United States, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party opposes abortion and calls for the promotion of traditional family values.
“She threw some red meat to her supporters,” said Daniele Albertazzi, a professor of politics at the University of Surrey in Britain and an expert on political populism.
“She wants to emphasize that she is not on the same page as some progressive leaders on these types of issues because that is part of her identity and has been diluted since she became prime minister,” he added.
FRENCH REPENTANCE
French President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist who has clashed with Meloni in the past over social issues including migration, told journalists at the summit that he regretted the fact that there was no longer a specific reference to “abortion”.
Meloni ignored the dispute, arguing on Saturday that this week’s declaration made clear that the G7 continued to support the objectives of its Hiroshima declaration, which supported access to abortion, meaning it was redundant to repeat the previous text.
“I sincerely believe that the controversy was completely invented,” she told reporters, adding that she had no intention of banning abortion in Italy.
However, signaling that there was genuine discomfort with Italy’s position, a senior US official said President Joe Biden opposed an initial draft that eliminated reference to abortion and made no mention of Hiroshima.
A senior White House official later said that Biden fully supported the final wording of the 2024 statement. “He felt strongly about the language that was conveyed,” he said.
Pope Francis, an outspoken opponent of abortion, was a guest at the G7 summit and Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, who is Meloni’s brother-in-law, said this week that it would not have been appropriate to talk about pregnancy terminations in the statement given. your presence at the meeting.
A European diplomat, who declined to be named, said that during discussions about whether or not to use the word, an Italian counterpart told fellow negotiators: “the pope will never accept it.” They then corrected themselves to say, “Oh, I mean, my prime minister will never accept that,” the diplomat said.
Italian authorities did not immediately comment on this.
While Meloni’s objection to abortion has long been known, the decision to soften the language on vaccines came as more of a surprise.
Italy removed a line included in the 2023 statement that called for “investment in global health through vaccine production capacity around the world”. This year, there was only one reference to “regional vaccine manufacturing initiatives”.
Vaccine skepticism has taken hold in conservative camps in both the United States and Europe.
While Meloni herself did not support advocates of vaccine bans during the COVID pandemic, her party opposed many of the harsh COVID regulations imposed at the time, which required Italians to be vaccinated in order to go to work, use transportation public or enter stores and restaurants.
“She is not anti-vaccine, but she is partially anti-vaccine,” said one of the European diplomats who followed the negotiations.
Meloni’s office declined to comment.
(Reporting by John Irish, Angelo Amante, Andrea Shalal, Thomas Escritt and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Mark Potter)
