Trump Wins, Italian PM Asks European Union To Focus On Organizing Its Own Country

UNSPLASH/Antoine Schibler ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stressed that the European Union must focus on managing its own country. Meloni called tariffs, competitiveness, and defense the most pressing issue facing the EU when it reached an agreement with Donald Trump who won the US Presidential Election.

Trump's return to power poses a major challenge to the European Union as its leaders meet in Budapest amid uncertainty on the continent struggling to reach unity, with its two greatest powers, Germany and France, which are politically weakening.

Meloni is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given his conservative credibility and overall stability of the far-right coalition he has led in Italy since 2022.

"Don't ask what the US can do for you, ask what Europe should do for itself," he told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in the Hungarian capital.

"Europe must find a balance. I'm thinking about competitiveness, tariffs," he added.

Meloni also said he considers Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk as a person who has a 'additional value' and good friends.

He had a telephone conversation with Musk after Trump's victory in the US presidential election on Tuesday.

The EU summit will include a debate over competitiveness, which Meloni says is "very important", and a presentation of the issue by former head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi.

"We know what we have to do, the big question we have to answer now is whether we really want to provide tools to member states to achieve their goals," he said.

On Thursday, Italian ministers asked the EU to support its members in their efforts to meet the NATO spending target of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the defense sector.

In his first term of office, Trump insisted NATO members should achieve this goal, but Roma has yet to achieve that goal, as the country is grappling with high public debt that severely limits the country's spending choices.