Olaf Scholz and Giorgia Meloni: An odd couple Bus falls off a bridge in Mexico: Twelve dead and 58 injured

Successful German foreign policy has always been characterized by the good personal relations between German government leaders and their counterparts abroad. Merkel and Sarkozy, Merkel and Obama, even Merkel and Putin. These were complex but stable relationships that other international partners could also rely on. The same went for Schröder and Chirac or Schröder and Blair. Not to mention Helmut Kohl and his friends in the West and the East.

And Olaf Scholz? Difficult. Even after two years in office, the number of his good foreign policy relationships is still manageable.

He tried with Emmanuel Macron and invited him to Hamburg and Potsdam, but it is complicated, which is not only Scholz’s fault, but also Macron’s fault. Merkel must have realized this already. This is evident from Macron’s current pirouettes about the war in the Gaza Strip. So far there has not been a single bilateral meeting with Rishi Sunak, who has been in office in London for almost as long as Giorgia Meloni has been in Italy, despite several proposed dates from Berlin. Scholz and the German government are apparently not a priority for the British.

Things have also been difficult for the large countries of Eastern Europe for some time now. There are few reliable connections to the right-wing populist governments in Poland and Hungary, which like to complain about Germany. Scholz tried to intensify contact with Romania. The country on the Black Sea has become more important due to its proximity to Ukraine and Moldova, but is by no means a superpower.

“Red carpet” for Meloni

Then there remains American President Joe Biden, on whom Scholz strongly orients himself in foreign policy, for example in supporting Ukraine against Russia. But the question is for how long, next year there will be elections in the US. Scholz’s second somewhat stable partner, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, from the same party family as Scholz, has just been confirmed as president.

In addition to Biden and Sánchez, Scholz appears to be working closely with, especially, the Italian Prime Minister, the right-wing populist Meloni. Meloni was in Berlin for her opening visit in February, and Scholz visited her in Rome in June. And now the third bilateral meeting within a year, including a press conference, dinner and government consultations. It is the first meeting of numerous ministers from both countries since 2016.

During previous meetings, it was important for Scholz to show harmony. On the sidelines of international summits, both emphasized the “excellent cooperation” between Berlin and Rome. Scholz rolled out the ‘red carpet’ for the post-fascists, the taz complained in February. This alliance is also unpleasant for the party that is still in the SPD.

More relaxed than expected

The pragmatists, on the other hand, and there are many of them in the SPD, defend the alliance: “If you want to achieve something in Europe, you have to look for what is common, not for what divides,” says Axel Schäfer in an interview with ZEIT ONLINE . He is chairman of the German-Italian parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. Apart from France, Italy, as a founding member of the EU and the third largest economy, is “our most important partner, even if it is not so entrenched in the general consciousness”. “You can’t afford not to cooperate,” says Schäfer. A ‘critical pragmatism’ is needed.

We hear from government circles that cooperation with the Italian government ‘at working level’ is more relaxed and professional than initially thought or feared. One reason for this may be that Scholz seemed relatively open and unbiased towards Meloni. Another is that there are still people in the Italian ministries who know the importance of cooperation with the Federal Republic.

Meloni also received praise in Berlin for showing great solidarity with Ukraine and sharply condemning Russia. Your party friends and coalition partners are much more Putin-friendly, such as Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is not present in Berlin. Meloni is very versatile, says a Berlin foreign policy expert. You must actively support their good aspects.

Scholz and Meloni will also attend a meeting of the G-20 states on Wednesday afternoon. Vladimir Putin is expected to participate in the video conference; it would be the first major gathering of its kind in a long time. Here too, it obviously helps if Europe appears somewhat united. In this case represented by Meloni and Scholz, on the same screen in the German Chancellery.

If only the annoying migration policy weren’t there. This issue caused the biggest conflict between the two partner countries this year. In September, Meloni wrote to Scholz to complain that the German government was supporting organizations that provide aid to refugees in her country. The response from the federal government was reassuring. Shortly afterwards it was announced that from next year the government no longer planned to make payments to private sea rescuers, in accordance with Meloni’s wishes.

In any case, within a year the traffic light government has come closer to the Italian position on its migration policy than the other way around. She now supports asylum procedures at the European external border and other repressive measures that right-wing populists have never had a problem with.

Now on

But refugee policy should not be the only focus on Wednesday. The two governments want to adopt a joint action plan. The aim is closer cooperation at different levels: in foreign and defense policy, environmental and economic policy, in education and research – and also in the field of migration. Scholz had already entered into this relationship when Mario Draghi, Meloni’s esteemed predecessor, was still in power in Rome. The action plan was a response to the friendship treaty that Italy and France concluded in November 2021, shortly before Scholz took office.

“We want to make it clear that German-Italian relations have a comparable status to German-French or French-Italian relations,” said Axel Schäfer of the German-Italian parliamentary group. However, it will be different in Berlin than at the turn of the year 2021/2022 with the Southern European partners, who celebrated the new friendship treaty with great pomp and ceremony. In Berlin it will probably be German and naughty, that is to say quite sober.

This article first appeared on Zeit Online. Watson may have changed the headings and subheadings. Here is the original.