breaks with Meloni, its last great European ally, while Starmer and Macron put pressure on Hormuz

That political romance has broken down this week in a way that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.

This Tuesday, Meloni took two steps in the same day that summarize very well how far things have come: he described Trump’s criticism of the Pope Leo XIV and suspended the defense agreement with Israel.

The clash with the pontificate was somewhat inevitable: Trump has repeatedly criticized the pontiff for his calls for peace in the war that the United States and Israel have been waging against Iran since February 28.

On Sunday, the president had described him as “terrible for foreign policy” and “very weak on security.” Meloni, a confessed Catholic and prime minister of one of the countries most concerned by the moral authority of the Vatican, could not—or would not—remain silent.

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is correct and normal that he calls for peace and condemns all forms of war,” he told the media.

Trump was quick to call the correspondent The Corriere della Sera in Washington to arrange an “interview” that turned into a long tirade against Meloni, whom he called a “coward” for not standing up to the Iranian nuclear threat.

“Italy has a serious problem. All of Europe has a serious problem,” said the New York magnate in reference to immigration and the supposed strategic lukewarmness of the Union.

Distances with Israel

Hours earlier, within the framework of the Vinitaly wine forum in Verona, Meloni had announced the suspension of the automatic renewal of the bilateral defense agreement with Israel, a memorandum in force since 2016, tacitly extended every five years and that regulates the exchange of military equipment and technological cooperation in defense matters.

“In view of the current situation, the Government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” he stated briefly.

The decision was made collectively: it was also signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajanithe Defense, Guido Crosettoand the vice president Matteo Salvinileader of the Northern League and close ally of Vladimir Putin.

In other words, it was not an impulsive gesture by Meloni: it was a decision by the hard core of his government. A diplomatic source confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the measure had been in the works for some time: “It would have been politically difficult to maintain.”

However, what is striking is not only what has been decided, but when and how. The agreement had expired on Monday the 13th and until the same day before the Italian press assumed that it would be renewed quietly, as always. It hasn’t been like that.

Nor is it an isolated gesture: in March, Meloni had defined the attacks against Iran as actions “outside international law” in the Senate, and earlier this month he asked for explanations for the Israeli fire against a convoy of his peace mission in Lebanon.

Merz and Macron, together

While Meloni was marking distances in Verona, on the other side of the Mediterranean the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz continued in all its splendor, with contradictory news regarding the effectiveness of the American blockade.

Apparently, according to satellite tracking, several ships have escaped the surveillance of the North American navy, raising doubts about the extent to which Washington is willing to carry out its threat.

Despite the umpteenth request for help from European partners, the response has been the usual: Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Estonia refused to participate in the blockade last Monday.

The German Chancellor Friedrich Merzwho hours before had called Benjamin Netanyahu to ask him to cease hostilities in Lebanon and had demanded that he not proceed with a “partial de facto annexation of the West Bank”, he noted that Berlin could contribute to guaranteeing freedom of navigation in the strait, but only “after the cessation of hostilities” and “provided the necessary conditions are met.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macronwent further and announced the call for an international conference, organized together with the United Kingdom, for next Friday in Paris.

The objective is to plan a multinational naval mission of a strictly defensive nature in the strait. “This mission, separate from the belligerent parties in the conflict, is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances allow,” he published on the X social network.

The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmersupported the proposal from London with a forceful: “No matter how much they pressure us, we are not going to allow ourselves to be dragged into war.” And he added, without anyone asking him, that NATO “is in the interest of America.”

The Franco-British proposal has a double reading. On the one hand, it can be understood as a gesture towards Washington: Europe wants to open the strait, but in its own way, without bowing to the United States’ logic of war. On the other hand, it is a warning: if the crisis continues, Europeans will act on their own.

Trump has been calling the Alliance a “paper tiger” for weeks and threatening to withdraw the United States from the organization.

In the private meeting he held last week with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutteaccording to European sources PoliticoTrump launched “a barrage of insults” and threatened to “do practically anything.” One source summed it up: “The meeting sucked.”

Goodbye to European “Trumpism”?

European “Trumpism”—the attempt to Steve Bannon y JD Vance of aligning the continent’s populist leaders under the ideological umbrella of Washington—accumulates one setback after another: Meloni publicly disapproves.

Marine Le Pen describes Trump’s war goals as “erratic”, the German AfD calls for the withdrawal of US troops from German soil… and last Sunday, its last stronghold in Europe collapsed at the polls: Viktor Orbánfor 16 years the most pro-Trump leader on the continent suffered a crushing defeat against the pro-European opposition of Péter Hungarian.

It cannot be considered a coincidence that, that same day, without much media attention, the Canadian Liberal Party of the Prime Minister Mark Carney sweep the by-elections.

The Canadian liberals, who seemed dead after the erratic last years of Justin Trudeau at the head of the country, they have recovered the parliamentary majority thanks, in part, to their position against Trump and the forcefulness of their leader when it comes to standing up to MAGA delusions.

On that reconfigured board, the visit of Pedro Sanchez Beijing these days takes on a dimension that goes beyond the commercial.

The President of the Spanish Government arrived in the Chinese capital last Saturday for his fourth official visit to Xi Jinping in just over three years – he had to modify the return route due to the closure of Iranian airspace – and signed seven memoranda on solar energy, railway logistics and digitalization this Tuesday.

The cycle that opens now is uncertain. Trump continues to threaten, the Strait of Hormuz remains doubly blocked — “it is the first time that a blockade tries to end a blockade,” said the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa—, the ceasefire with Iran expires on April 21 and energy prices do not let up.

Of course, something seems to have changed in recent days. Europe, with its nuances and different rhythms, is no longer limited to protesting or sending private messages that Trump spreads on Truth Social to humiliate those who write them. Take action. And he does so, for the first time since Trump’s arrival at the White House, without asking permission.