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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has change into a frontrunner amongst European conservatives since assuming her function final yr, drawing comparisons to different legendary conservatives from the continent.
“Meloni has been a exceptional and beautiful success story in Italy in a rustic that has suffered from political instability for many years, and he or she has challenged the established order and is successful,” Nile Gardiner, the director of the Heritage Basis’s Margaret Thatcher Heart for Freedom, advised Fox Information Digital.
Gardiner’s feedback come forward of Meloni’s scheduled go to with President Biden on the White Home on Thursday, her first official go to to the USA since changing into prime minister.
The Italian prime minister makes her journey to Washington as a budding conservative star in Europe, making waves along with her positions on the coronavirus pandemic and her seemingly anti-“woke” strategy to home coverage.
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![Giorgia Meloni speaks at podium during election campaign](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/09/Giorgia-Meloni.jpg)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has change into a frontrunner amongst European conservatives since assuming her function final yr, drawing comparisons to different legendary conservatives from the continent. (Getty Photos / File)
Her positions on LGBT parenting and same-sex marriage and her skepticism of the European Union have been controversial in Europe, although Gardiner argued that her willingness to take a stand on such points places her on related floor as former U.Ok. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
“One of the spectacular points of her time in workplace has been to implement what she has promised on the marketing campaign path,” Gardiner stated. “I feel Meloni actually understands the importance of the tradition wars in Europe, and he or she is probably the most principled chief in Western Europe on cultural issues and takes a really agency stand in protection of conventional Christian Western civilization.”
Gardiner known as Meloni the “strongest defender of Christianity in Western Europe at present,” arguing that “only a few leaders are ready to take positions she takes.”
“Margaret Thatcher would have supported the stance Meloni took on the protection of Western civilization,” Gardiner stated.
Meloni will now take her distinctive management fashion to the White Home, the place she and Biden are anticipated to debate the conflict in Ukraine and Italy’s transatlantic cooperation with China.
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The Italian prime minister has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion final yr, main the cost to proceed offering Ukrainian forces with assist regardless of pushback from Italy’s opposition social gathering.
In passionate remarks in entrance of the Italian Parliament final month, Meloni took a powerful stand in opposition to the opposition arguments that Ukrainian lives might be saved by permitting Russia to win the conflict.
“Freedom, democracy and the values of our civilization have been constructed with the sacrifice of those that have been able to sacrifice themselves to construct them,” Meloni stated, in response to a translation that was independently verified by Fox Information Digital. “I do not assume it is higher to dwell below a dictatorship than to die. I feel we’ve to work so that individuals can dwell free.”
Meloni can also be anticipated to debate Italy’s participation within the controversial Belt and Street Initiative, a Chinese language undertaking that envisions rebuilding the previous Silk Street with massive infrastructure spending to attach Asia and China with Europe.
Italy, which is the one Western nation to affix the initiative, signed on in 2019 below the management of former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. That transfer was controversial with each the U.S. and European Union, although Meloni says that Biden has by no means raised the problem along with her.
![President Joe Biden](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/05/GettyImages-1258204233.jpg)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is scheduled to fulfill with President Biden on the White Home on Thursday, her first official go to to the USA since changing into prime minister. (Celal Gunes / Anadolu Company by way of Getty Photos / File)
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“The president of the USA has by no means straight raised the query with me,” she stated at a information convention this week, in response to a report from Reuters.
Italy’s take care of China is ready to run out subsequent yr and Meloni is reportedly unlikely to resume it, with an announcement of these plans presumably coming throughout her journey to Washington.
However true comparisons to Thatcher are untimely, in response to Gardiner, who famous the amount of reforms achieved within the U.Ok. below the previous prime minister’s management.
![Margaret Thatcher, Giorgia Meloni](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/07/Thatcher-Meloni.jpg)
Margaret Thatcher, left, and Giorgia Meloni (Getty Photos)
Gardiner, a former adviser to Thatcher, famous that “Meloni is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher. … I feel she sees Margaret Thatcher as an actual inspiration,” Gardiner stated, including that it’s “too early for comparisons due to the sheer scale of achievements” made by the previous U.Ok. prime minister.
“Girl Thatcher essentially turned the U.Ok. round from the sick man of Europe into an financial powerhouse, and Meloni nonetheless has to attain related financial reforms,” Gardiner added. “However I’d say that Meloni aspires to be the Margaret Thatcher of Italy, I feel that’s the function mannequin for her.”
![Thatcher and Reagan](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-515168982.jpg)
President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Getty Photos)
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Gardiner stated that to ensure that Meloni to succeed in the legendary standing of Thatcher, she must “embark on a radical pro-free market and financial agenda,” which he stated can be “an enormous problem for Italy.”
“The size of [the] process is an enormous one, however I feel she’s by far the most effective Italian chief we’ve seen previously couple of a long time and is clearly a powerful conservative chief,” Gardiner stated. “We’re nonetheless wanting on the early levels of her prime ministerial profession in Italy, however she has made a really promising begin.”
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