MAGA-friendly leader suffers stunning defeat for being too close to Trump

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suffered a shock defeat this month as her party's proposal to reform the nation's judiciary in a way that grants more power to the executive went down — and President Donald Trump played a role in it, The Guardian reported.

"Things were not supposed to go this way," wrote Riccardo Alcaro. "Approval ratings for Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party have remained largely stable since 2022, a remarkable feat in Italian politics. She has also regularly outperformed most fellow European leaders in terms of popular support. And not long before the referendum, polls still had the yes campaign ahead. So what happened?"

There were a number of factors, he wrote, including general suspicion the reform would amount to a power grab — but another issue was how close she has been to Trump, and widespread discontent over it.

"Meloni’s proximity to the US president has its roots in ideological affinity: she shares US conservatives’ framing of western civilisation as a community based on tradition, religion, and cultural and ethnic homogeneity," wrote Alcaro. "It also has its roots in strategic pragmatism, as the US is an irreplaceable partner for Italy. While this approach to Trump has been appreciated by Meloni’s electorate, it has failed to convince her opponents, who loathe his abrasive personality and hostility to Europe. They also point out – not without reason – that this closeness has not spared Italy from tariff pressures and demands for an impossibly high military spending threshold."

The electoral map shows clear signs of Italian voters' anger over Trump, noted the article, since "the central regions of Italy, traditionally left-leaning, and in major cities, where opposition to Trump is more widespread, recorded the highest turnout."

This comes at a moment that Europe's far-right is re-evaluating its relationship with Trump in general, spurred on by a reluctance to get involved in the U.S. president's war with Iran. Trump himself is believed by some experts to be rethinking that conflict.