The brisk shift in tone — striking from a leader who built a reputation as one of Europe’s most-reliable U.S. allies — is a reflection of pressures closer to home.
Airstrikes on Iran have proved deeply unpopular in Italy, where public opinion is overwhelmingly hostile toward the prospect of being drawn into another Middle East conflict.
And with the government approaching a politically sensitive referendum about judicial reforms, which has increasingly become a plebiscite on Meloni’s coalition, the prime minister now faces the delicate task of maintaining her transatlantic alliances while also responding to domestic strains.
Meloni appears to be unmistakably, yet cautiously, repositioning herself on the side of restraint. In her remarks, she condemned the bombing of a girls’ school that killed 168 people as a “massacre,” and requested responsibility be ascertained swiftly. Multiple media outlets have reported the school was probably hit by a U.S. strike on a neighboring Iranian naval base.
Meloni now joins EU leaders including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten in criticizing — with varying degrees of vigorousness — the strikes against Iran.
She also sought to compare her stance on joint-use U.S.-Italian bases with that of Sánchez, who has openly condemned the war and has been praised by the Italian opposition.
