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NATO chief looks forward to working with Italian PM Meloni

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday congratulated Giorgia Meloni on becoming Prime Minister of Italy and said he looked forward to working with her.

Published: 23 October 2022 10:26 CEST

NATO chief looks forward to working with Italian PM Meloni

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference at the end of a two-day meeting of the alliance's Defence Ministers at the NATO headquarters. Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD/AFP

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday congratulated Giorgia Meloni on becoming Prime Minister of Italy and said he looked forward to working with her.

Meloni, the 45-year-old leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, took office on Saturday after promising to keep her country “fully, and with its head held high, part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance (NATO)”.

“Congratulations on your appointment as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni,” Stoltenberg tweeted.

“Italy is a founding member of NATO, committed to the transatlantic bond and making strong contributions to our security in a more dangerous world. I look forward to working with you.”

Meloni tweeted back her thanks, saying: “Ready to work with NATO, that is more than a military alliance: a bulwark of common values we’ll never stop standing for.”

Her pledge to work closely with NATO contrasted with the stances of her partners in her coalition government, who are both considered close to Russia.

One of them is Matteo Salvini, a long-time fan of President Vladimir Putin, who is now deputy prime minister under Meloni.

The other is former premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was this week heard in a leaked recording talking about his warm ties with Moscow and appearing to blame Russia’s war in Ukraine on President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meloni, in a tweet on Saturday thanking Zelensky for his congratulations to her, said: “Italy is and will always be on the side of the brave people of Ukraine that is fighting for its freedom and for a rightful peace.”

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‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

They highlighted among their concerns the continued criminalisation of defamation – a law Meloni herself has used against a high-profile journalist – and the proposed takeover of a major news agency by a right-wing MP.

The two-day mission, led by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), was planned for the autumn but brought forward due to “worrying developments”, Andreas Lamm of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) told a press conference.

The ECPMF’s monitoring project, which records incidents affecting media freedom such as legal action, editorial interference and physical attacks, recorded a spike in Italy’s numbers from 46 in 2022 to 80 in 2023.

There have been 49 so far this year.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, took office as head of a hard-right coalition government in October 2022.

A key concern of the NGOs is the increased political influence over the RAI public broadcaster, which triggered a strike by its journalists this month.

READ ALSO: Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government ‘censorship’

“We know RAI was always politicised…but now we are at another level,” said Renate Schroeder, director of the Brussels-based EFJ.

The NGO representatives – who will write up a formal report in the coming weeks – recommended the appointment of fully independent directors to RAI, among other measures.

They also raised concerns about the failure of repeated Italian governments to decriminalise defamation, despite calls for reform by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Meloni herself successfully sued journalist Roberto Saviano last year for criticising her attitude to migrants.

“In a European democracy a prime minister does not respond to criticism by legally intimidating writers like Saviano,” said David Diaz-Jogeix of London-based Article 19.

He said that a proposed reform being debated in parliament, which would replace imprisonment with fines of up to 50,000 euros, “does not meet the bare minimum of international and European standards of freedom of expression”.

The experts also warned about the mooted takeover of the AGI news agency by a group owned by a member of parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party – a proposal that also triggered journalist strikes.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

Beatrice Chioccioli of the International Press Institute said it posed a “significant risk for the editorial independence” of the agency.

The so-called Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium expressed disappointment that no member of Meloni’s coalition responded to requests to meet with them.

They said that, as things stand, Italy is likely to be in breach of a new EU media freedom law, introduced partly because of fears of deteriorating standards in countries such as Hungary and Poland.

Schroeder said next month’s European Parliament elections could be a “turning point”, warning that an increase in power of the far-right across the bloc “will have an influence also on media freedom”.

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