Italy’s prime minister in-waiting, Giorgia Meloni, thanked Polish President Andrzej Duda for his words of support during his interview with Italian state TV RAI. In her Twitter post, she also added that she is convinced that “Italy and Poland can enhance cooperation to defend common values and European security.”
In his interview for RAI2, Duda said that Meloni’s views were fully in line with those of Poland when it came to both global matters and also traditional values. He paraphrased Meloni’s now famous words, “I am Georgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, and I am a Christian,” by saying “I am Andrzej, I am a man, I am a father, and I am a Catholic.”
According to Duda, there is a striking affinity of ideas between Meloni and his own when it comes to matters such as defending the family, faith, and Christian values. He gave Poland’s pro-family program of universal child benefits as an example and argued that it was not aid or a payoff but an investment in the future.
The Polish president said that he hoped Italy and Poland could cooperate together to change Europe in the desired direction, saying, “We want a strong Europe based on the partnership of free nations and equal states that are sovereign, national-based, and working together rather than interfering in matters of religion and culture.”
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is part of the same European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group that was co-founded by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party for whom Duda stood for president in 2015 and was re-elected in 2020.
Meloni’s views on culture and society and her support for Europe’s alliance with America are a mirror image of those of PiS, according to Duda. The Polish ruling party had previously been courted by Matteo Salvini but has found Meloni’s views on key issues such as the war in Ukraine far more to its liking. Meloni has from day one supported Ukraine and unequivocally condemned Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
