Will Giorgia Meloni be an enemy of Macron?

French elites are annoyed and perturbed that Italian elections have produced a new prime minister of the right, Giorgia Meloni, whom many within the Paris groupthink bubble consider to be practically a fascist.

Not welcome news for Emmanuel Macron, who is up to his neck in problems. His European Renaissance is flailing. Eurozone inflation is at 10 per cent. Macron’s failure to win control of the National Assembly after his own reelection this year has derailed his legislative program, including pension reform, its centrepiece. Germany has turned out to be a catastrophic best friend, Merkel disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving energy chaos behind her. And now the Italians have voted to install a popular conservative, a friend of Eric Zemmour no less, who has no illusions whatsoever about France.

‘I will not comment on the democratic choice of the Italian people,’ Macron’s prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, sniffed this week. Graciously congratulating the new Italian government on its election victory was apparently too difficult for her.