Summary
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an “immediate” summit between the US, EU, and Western allies to discuss Ukraine following a heated White House meeting between Trump and President Zelenskyy.
The February 28 meeting ended without agreement on a minerals deal after escalating into a confrontation over US aid and peace deal conditions.
Meloni warned that Western division “makes us all weaker” as European leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented that “the free world needs a new leader,” while European allies worry about being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war.
Because Italy has no natural resources and we evolved into the perfect slave of American neocolonialism. Without the US buying our shit, we would have our economy in shambles.
France and Germany (our actual major trade partner btw, US is second) have made VERY different investments.
We have also never been imperial powers (both France and Germany were and to some extent are). I guess we have a different history in general, though.
BTW, we deindustrialized in the last 25ish years, we were actually above Germany as an industrial power. So I don’t think it’s just economic dependency.
Italy did maintain colonies in parts of what today are Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, among other places, albeit the Italian imperial project was comparatively short in both time and space.
Yes, I am aware. Despite the cruelty (especially in Eritrea) it was a parody of a colonial power, and I wouldn’t call it an empire.
Fair enough. I couldn’t tell from your original comment.
It was a fair shout, if anything because it is (for obvious reasons) a fairly unknown part of history. I remember my grandma telling me stories of vacationing in Tripoli when she was a kid, and her brother playing football (in the national team, according to her, will never know).
Ironically the idea of “protectorate” is still somewhat alive, which is funny because in another thread in this post I am discussing about how Italian fascism does have ideas (vs being opportunistic).
Multiple Ceasars are spinning in their graves, at your first sentence. 🤣
That wasn’t Italy that was something else Altogether but in the geographic area of italy, the real Italy we all know and love began in the 18th century as an effect of Napoleon’s conquest then loss. Before that it was an geographic amalgation of principalities and kingdoms. All different currencies, armies, borders etc.
Never been an imperial power, aside from when we created the concept
At that time the concept of Italy didn’t exist :) it barely exists now.