Millennial mosaics and private opening of the National gallery. Sunak’s exceptional treatment of Meloni in london – Corriere.it

The negotiations went on for weeks. And still today, a few hours after Giorgia Meloni’s arrival in London, they are not finished. The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sent only one message to his staff for the visit of the Italian Prime Minister, “the visit must be a success and must have extraordinary characteristics”. Palazzo Chigi and Downing street worked on this input for a long time and not always in descent but in the end a general program was defined: one of the emblematic moments of the Italian premier’s stay will be a visit to the millenary Benedictine mosaics, some dating back to ancient craftsmen Romans, kept in Westminster Cathedral.

Usually these mosaics are closed to the public and they are opened, so to speak, only in exceptional circumstances. One of these will be the coronation of Charles, in a few days. That day, May 6, in London, the head of state Sergio Mattarella will be there for Italy, but Giorgia Meloni, personally accompanied by Sunak, a conservative like her, will already see them today, or at the latest tomorrow, on a private visit. Equally, and strictly private, will be the opening for Meloni of the exhibition dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, which will be inaugurated at the National gallery only in ten days’ time: also in this case an exception will be made; the director of the first British art museum is Italian, the premier will see the exhibition (on which the British and Italians worked for seven years) in a world preview, so to speak.

Meloni lands today in the British capital for a two-day visit that promises to be more than downhill. The respective staff have worked hard to organize an event that for both parties has a weight of maximum importance. There is a human harmony between the two leaders which already took place in Bali, during the G20, a few weeks after both took office. A political harmony based on the common belonging to the European right-wing family. A crossing of interests that ranges from the possibility that the United Kingdom promotes a European conference on migration by inviting Italy as co-president to the industrial cooperations that see London and Rome engaged in the multibillion-dollar and strategic planning of the sixth generation Tempest military fighter , together with the Japanese.

Sunak has decided that Meloni deserves a limelight which is hardly granted to other heads of government: a three-hour visit to Downing Street is a record according to the British. Ukraine is certainly an area where interests interlock without nuances, the two states are perfectly aligned in an Atlantic posture which has not known any cracks in recent months, but also the intention to sign a memorandum committing the two states to work a privileged institutional cooperation along the lines of the treaties linking Rome to Paris, or Paris to Berlin, reinforces the projection of a political understanding which can unfold effects which are still only on paper, but which both governments are pursuing.

Among the scheduled talks at Downing street (the two leaders have also cut into the agenda not indifferent time for a face-to-face away from the staff), the visit to the Benedictine mosaics and that to the paintings in the National gallery will also include space for the awarding of the international Grotius prize, an acknowledgment which last year went to the Estonian premier and which Sunak himself could bestow on Meloni with his own hands, having worked in the past in organizing the historic British conservative recognition.

Perhaps only one will be the topic on which the two premiers they will have a frank confrontation, as they say in diplomatic terms, but not a decisive one. On the Tempest fighter, the superjet that London, Rome and Tokyo are preparing to build together, and which will not be ready before 2035, the ideas on who should be in charge have not yet converged. The British are claiming a larger portion of the partnership, the Japanese are putting in the most money, the Italians don’t want the consortium to be based in England. In the end, a diplomat who followed the negotiations in recent days put it this way: “Since, as always, the Americans will be the major buyers, a phone call from Washington will resolve any uncertainties.”