Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has openly rejected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s sharp criticism of the US MAGA movement, exposing an early fault line in the Rome–Berlin partnership just weeks after the two leaders pledged to drive a new European agenda together.
Returning from the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Meloni told Italian newspapers she did not share Merz’s harsh assessment of MAGA, stressing that such judgments were “political evaluations” for each leader to make individually and reaffirming her belief that Europe should focus on what unites it with the United States rather than what divides them.
Her stance contrasted with Merz’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, where he warned that the “culture battles” of MAGA were not Europe’s and argued that a growing rift between Europe and Washington demanded a more autonomous European course in security and trade policy.
The disagreement comes less than a month after Meloni and Merz met in Rome to sign a German‑Italian Action Plan and a broader cooperation package on defense, security and competitiveness, a summit widely billed as the launch of a new “Rome–Berlin axis” meant to steer the European Union through geopolitical turbulence and doubts about US reliability.
The emerging rift over how to handle Donald Trump’s America underscores both Meloni’s unique proximity to the current US president and the fragility of a partnership that, diplomats say, is still more a convergence of short‑term interests than a fully structured strategic alliance.
