Whoever attacks premier, attacks all of Italy: Deputy PM Salvini on Trump-Meloni row

Rome: After US President Donald Trump’s statements about Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ignited a diplomatic clash between Washington and Rome, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, on Saturday defended the premier while reaffirming the executive’s unity.

“I can only repeat that whoever attacks the Prime Minister attacks the entire government and all of Italy,” stated Salvini while speaking at the Lega-Mercato Gazebo in Milan. “This obviously does not compromise relations between two friendly countries, between two friendly peoples,” Adnkronos news agency quoted him as saying.

The clash between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni ignited after the words of the US President, who had accused the Prime Minister of having “begged” for a photo at the G7 Summit in Evian and of having been “absent from the Strait of Hormuz.”

“She was a fan of mine, but I don’t want her anymore,” the US President had said. Meloni immediately replied on social media, calling those phrases related to the G7 photo “totally invented” and also saying she was “astonished” by the American leader’s attitude towards allies.

The clash had also led to a solidarity call from the Head of State Sergio Mattarella to the premier and the cancellation of Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s visit to the United States, who had deemed Trump’s words “serious and offensive to all of Italy”.

“The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend all of Italy. For this reason, I have decided to cancel my visit to the United States scheduled for the next 21 and 22 June,” Tajani wrote on X.

Trump reportedly said in an exclusive phone interview with ‘L’Aria che tira’ on La7, David Parenzo’s programme, that Giorgia Meloni “begged me to take a photo with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly. I might not have done it, but I felt sorry for her.”

“How is your Prime Minister? How is she?”, Trump asked the La7 correspondent, who in turn asked the American President for a comment on the conversation he had with Meloni on the sidelines of the Evian summit. “She’s probably happy I spoke to her. I wasn’t obliged to speak to her,” he replied.

Trump then stated that “Europeans got everything wrong on energy and everything wrong on immigration. And if they don’t solve these problems, Europe will never be the same.”

IANS