“Together we’ll defeat Mordor”: Morawiecki and Meloni meet to discuss “common vision of Europe”

Italy and Poland’s right-wing governments share a “common vision of Europe”, said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki after meeting in Warsaw with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, who also held talks with President Andrzej Duda.

Having heard of Meloni’s passion for Lord of the Rings, which is a favourite text of Italy’s post-fascist right, Morawiecki also took the Italian premier to a Tolkien-themed cafe. “Together we’ll defeat Mordor,” he wrote on social media.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy’s (FdI) party are part of the same European grouping as Morawiecki’s Law and Justice (PiS). Poland’s government and president welcomed her election victory last year. The two sides in particular share a vision of an EU with strong member states rather than a more federalised entity.

“We want a strong Europe, we want a European Union that is a global player,” said Morawiecki yesterday after his meeting with Meloni. “But it will be a global player when it…takes into account the interests of all member states, equally.”

“We share values ​​with Giorgia and the Italian government – democratic, Christian values, a common vision of a Europe of strong states, a Europe of homelands, and not some utopian federalist or de facto centralist vision,” he added.

“We have similar visions of what the European Union should look like,” agreed Meloni. “We want Europe to be a political giant, not a bureaucratic giant…A Europe that tackles certain problems in a pragmatic way must take into account the different identities of the peoples that make it up.”

Their talks were, however, primarily focused on providing support to Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression, with Meloni subsequently travelling on to Kyiv. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden arrived in Poland last night following his own surprise visit to Ukraine.

“Geopolitics is absolutely the number one topic, because in order to return to normality, control the energy crisis, the economic crisis, suppress inflation, we know that Russia must be defeated, that Ukraine must defeat Russia, with the support of the countries of the free world,” said Morawiecki.

“Italy and Poland have absolutely the same opinion on these issues,” he continued. “We feel a similar responsibility.”

The pair also agreed, noted Meloni, on the importance of “securing the EU’s external borders”. Morawiecki pointed out that Italy has faced large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers coming from the south while Poland has in recent years experienced a similar issue on its eastern border with Belarus.

Subsequently, Meloni met with Duda, whom she thanked “for his friendship and for a cordial and fruitful meeting”.

Main image credit: Mateusz Morawiecki/Facebook

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.