 "Why Giorgia Meloni stands tall among all G7 leaders")
Among the leaders of the G7 nations, six out of seven face domestic hurdles, with tough elections, dwindling support, and the possibility of ouster on the horizon. The only exception is the host Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. Her stock is on the rise, while the other leaders are facing a rout.
Three of the G7 leaders—US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and French President Emmanuel Macron—face immediate danger.
Biden faces an election in November, and he’s barely hanging on. Recent polls show him neck and neck with his rival, Donald Trump, even though Trump is now a convicted felon. The US public apparently doesn’t rate Biden too highly, and he may be sacked in a few months.
Things look even worse for Sunak, the British PM, who is trailing by a massive margin. His party is staring at a rout in the election next month. The fate will be sealed in about three weeks from now. So it is likely that this G7 summit will be Sunak’s last.
Then there is Macron, the French president, who has taken a risky gamble as he called for snap parliamentary polls after having his party drubbing in the recent European Union Parliament elections. The results showed that Macron’s party has lost public confidence, and he wants to turn that around immediately.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIf his plan works and his party manages to win the elections, his position will be secure. However, if they lose, Macron will become a lame duck. The opposition will take over the French parliament and block his every move, leaving him almost powerless until he leaves office in 2027.
Then there are the other three leaders—German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida—who are struggling.
Scholz is in the same boat as Macron. His party did very badly in the EU elections, ranking third in Germany. So, like Macron, Scholz seems to have lost popular support. However, Scholz isn’t trying to salvage his legitimacy and has so far resisted calls for a snap election. It seems he wants to ride out the storm instead of facing it head-on. However, this strategy may not help his popularity. Whatever he does, Germany will go to the polls next year, at the latest. So if not now, Scholz may be out the door in a year’s time.
Then comes Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, whose country goes to the polls next year with a record low approval rating. The lowest in history for a leader of his party. Opinion polls suggest that he won’t survive the next election.
Japan’s PM, Fumio Kishida, is included in this list as well. His cabinet has received its lowest approval since he took charge, and they have been rocked by one scandal after another. His party has been linked to a controversial church. As many as four members of Kishida’s cabinet had to resign last December over a fundraising scandal. This prompted a new funding law last week in a bid to control the damage. But Kishida’s popularity continues to sink. He may not survive the general election slated for 2025.
So as Biden, Sunak, and Macron could lose power this year, Scholz, Trudeau, and Kishida could be out next year. This means six of the G7 governments are in a weak position. The only exception is the host, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She emerged as the big winner of the recent EU election, with her party more than doubling its seat tally.
This makes her a force to be reckoned with in Europe, and the G7 and Meloni know this.
“It is a message that comes to us from Italians: ‘go ahead, go ahead’. I take it as someone’s message to say, Go ahead and do it, if possible, with greater determination. A sign that I understand, a sign that I am ready to seize. And I’m proud that we are heading to the G7 and to Europe with the strongest government of all,” said the Italian prime minister.
Meloni said “the strongest government of all” because she knows that she is firmly in the driver’s seat. She is the only G7 leader who seems to have public support, and in fact, support for her has increased since she came to power.
One of the key discussions this week will involve the EU’s top job—the post of European Commission president—currently held by Ursula von der Leyen, who will be at the G7 summit.
Von der Leyen will sit down with Scholz, Macron, and Meloni to try and formalise an EU parliamentary coalition. She needs support from at least two of the three aforementioned leaders, and Meloni is in the strongest position to negotiate a deal.
If Meloni extends her support to von der Leyen, the EU Commission would have to accommodate her, which would put Italy at the centre of European politics, cementing Meloni’s place as a global leader. Given how her peers are struggling, no one other than her seems better suited to take on such a bigger role on the global stage.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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