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Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has called for a “reasoned” approach to an escalating tariff war between the EU and the US and repeated the importance of transatlantic unity.
The US president, Donald Trump, has announced sweeping tariffs on his country’s allies and adversaries, including a 25% levy on car imports starting next week, and a 200% tariff on champagne, wine and other alcoholic drinks from the EU.
The duties come amid tensions over defence, with Trump’s overtures to Russia over the Ukraine war sparking concern among EU leaders about Washington’s commitment to the continent’s security.
Meloni, the leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, said on Saturday she felt it “my responsibility” to defend transatlantic unity, and “to rebuild it if necessary”.
“Of course there are differences on the table on tariffs, but precisely for this reason I also think that we should not act on impulse but in a reasoned way,” she told a meeting of the centrist opposition Azione (Action) party.
Just over 10% of Italian exports go to the US, half of them machinery and related components.
Emanuele Orsini, the head of the Italian business federation Confindustria, told the same meeting that a trade war would be a “huge problem for Italy”, saying he hoped the EU could negotiate a solution.
Meloni, whose party has a deep Eurosceptic streak, told the Financial Times on Friday that the US was Italy’s “first ally” and rejected the idea of having to choose Europe or the US.
“Our relations with the US are the most important relationship that we have,” she said.
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She also sympathised with the US vice-president JD Vance’s accusation that Europe had abandoned its commitment to free speech and democracy.
“I have to say I agree,” she told the paper, adding: “I’ve been saying this for years … Europe has a bit lost itself.”
In response, Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic party, accused Meloni’s government of “transforming itself day by day into the Trojan horse of the Trump administration within the EU”.
Meloni has, however, backed plans to boost Europe’s defence in the face of Washington’s shift, at least in principle, while ruling out sending troops to enforce a possible peace settlement in Ukraine.
One of her two junior coalition partners, Matteo Salvini of the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration League party, is strongly opposed to the defence plan, characterising it as a ruse to boost the German economy.
