4 weeks left (four!) until Italy lifts passport checks for Spanish flights, and Meloni is dangerously close to getting a cake served right to her face. Somebody call Ceuta and request a crisis, please.... the clock is ticking... 🎂👀

It. govt has reacted to recent events in Ceuta by: 1. Adopting border controls with Spain (i.e. at major airports - a purely symbolic measure meant to weaken PM Sanchez); 2. Pushing for new agreements with Afr. countries for asylum/ migration applications to be processed there - with EU blessing.

Vannacci & his Futuro Nazionale (FN - not by coincidence...) only need 6-7% to try & convince Meloni to welcome them into the right-wing alliance. However, if they overtake Tajani's Forza Italia (& they don't need to go much further to achieve that) the psychological impact will be huge.

All that pandering and normalising by The Economist, and this is what they get in return... Some food for thought here, clearly.

Former general Roberto Vannacci has officially co-opted that radical space with his new party, Futuro Nazionale. Unburdened by the actual responsibilities of government, he is far better positioned to play the insurgent.

​Trump repeatedly attacking one of the very few European leaders still willing to validate him is a level of 4D chess my brain simply was not able to process. I need to become smarter.

Hope Count Binface evacuated his whole family to Alpha Centauri, because Farage’s media allies are about to launch a massive spin campaign proving a bin is never just a bin. Things are going to get ugly. Very ugly. 🗑️🛸

Fresh attack by Trump, to which Meloni may feel compelled to respond. Image published on Truth Social depicting Italian premier in 'adoration' before the President of the United States.

Politics is the only language she has ever spoken, and she remains a remarkably adept operator. She has built her career on turning impossible dilemmas into survivable compromises... Watch this space.

Andy is getting the warm-up applause every popular figure gets before they actually have to do anything. The minute he starts allocating resources, watch the same pundits flip the script — gushing today, "what happened to him?" by next quarter. Resource allocation is where likability goes to die

Rupert Lowe and Roberto Vannacci - the twins: leading personal parties; attracting disproportionate media attention on the basis of limited support; &, more importantly, pushing others further to the right in a futile attempt to disarm them.

​Almost 4 years since the right-wing coalition won in Italy and sent Meloni to Palazzo Chigi, the centre-left opposition has produced: checks notes... shuffles papers... looks under the table... checks again all drawers... ​... ZERO unitary proposals for a future government. Not a peep.

Orbán heading to the US — fake beard and sunglasses optional, but Hungarian prosecutors might make them necessary. 🧔🕶️ That trip alone tells you everything about why Meloni's "normalisation" playbook is working — and why Orbán's wasn't. #EuropeanPolitics #HungaryPolitics

When the chips are down Italy plays its key role within the EU and stands by its vital partners in Europe. The identity of the PM (Draghi, Conte, Meloni... you choose...) does not make much of a difference in the end

Zelensky welcomed in Rome today by both the Italian PM and Italian President. Orbán and Trump who?

Eyes on Rome: Giorgia Meloni is entering difficult weeks, as the referendum results dents her image as a "winner".

"To truly liberate the British people, we must embrace the sovereign freedom of offshore crypto-whales." ​Looking forward to Nigel making this exact argument with a straight face and a pint in his hand.

Very easy prediction right now, given Trump's behaviour and fresh threats to EU allies: Europe's radical right was never united — but the gulf between its pro-Trump/Putin and pro-EU/Ukraine wings is about to get a whole lot wider in weeks to come.

So Shabana Mahmood says refused asylum seeker families could get up to £40,000 to leave Britain... Meanwhile at 10 Downing Street, someone’s clearly teaching a masterclass titled: “How to Annoy Literally Everyone in One Easy Policy.” Five stars. No notes. Absolute bipartisan chaos. 🍿

Few people in the UK have the vaguest idea whatever a Danish-inspired approach to asylum might mean 🤔. So the point is to reach Copenhagen, be seen visiting what looks like a prison, stress how "tough" Danish govt is...then wait for those Reform UK voters to flock back to Labour in droves. Fools.

In politics you can always move right. But you would always -always- "lurch" left...

I doubt Vannacci's moves are going to have much of an impact on Meloni's strategy. If anything, they will convince her to strengthen her "Christian Democratic" alliance with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Forza Italia leader Tajani, to look even more pro-EU, pro-NATO, pro-Ukraine.

Remember Gianluigi Paragone of Italexit, the king of the current affair programme, the prince of the talk show who went from interviewer to interviewee after trying to cash in on Euroscepticism for a while? No? Me neither...

Salvini's problem is not General Vannacci - the 6,754th political nonentity who, in post-90s Italy, is trying to cash in on media exposure by relying on a couple of catchy slogans & free publicity by public service broadcaster RAI. There have been many before him, also (but not only) on the right.

And here it is (from La Stampa): National Future.

In further news concerning the normalisation of the extreme right, Matteo Salvini has hosted Tommy Robinson at Italy's Ministery of Transport and infrastructure today. Almost as if he were some sort of foreign dignitary.

What a week this has been on the international stage, and it's only Wednesday... Something that never changes, though, no matter how crazy Trump gets & how many drones Putin sends out, is how much Salvini influences Meloni's security & foreign policy decisions: it's zero, nada, minus 5.

Of course he won't be imposing the extra tariffs after all. Of course.

Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tajani, gets it right again (he's also the one who managed to secure Forza Italia's survival + the overtaking of the League despite Berlusconi's death - not a foregone conclusion, by any means). Tajani is advising Meloni not to sign up to Trump's "Peace Board"

Italy remains an island of stability and predictability in an uncertain world. You couldn't get voting intention estimates to shift much if you attacked them with a hammer!