ROME – All eyes are on Giorgia Meloni as the Pope’s funeral turns Rome into a stage for global diplomacy.
Rome will host over 170 international delegations for Saturday’s funeral. While the Vatican will handle ceremonies inside its sovereign territory, the machinery of international protocol beyond St. Peter’s Square is run by the Italian government.
With presidents, prime ministers and religious leaders gathered in one place, Meloni is using the occasion to cast herself not just as a mourner but as a stateswoman: steady, visible and indispensable.
Formal meetings have been explicitly ruled out by the government – labelled “in poor taste,” the Corriere della Sera reports – but the funeral still opens the door to informal talks.
Even the spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen didn’t rule out “other meetings” on the sidelines.
A quiet word with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or even the opportunity to broker a first encounter between US President Donald Trump and the Commission chief could offer Meloni exactly what she’s seeking: recognition as a mediator within the West.
A holy calculation
Meloni’s public mourning has been an opportunity for her to project her political persona alongside the pontiff’s moral authority.
“To remember Pope Francis is to speak of a man who, for me personally, meant much more,” Meloni said, sharing private memories of their bond and revealing the pope kept drawings by her daughter.
She recast herself as an heir to his legacy, pledged to follow his “path of peace” and work toward “a fairer society,” – even as her government’s hardline policies on migration and social justice tell a different story.
Francis famously declared, “God is with migrants, not those who reject them” or “it is not by stricter laws or militarising the borders that the problem is solved” – words that stand in stark contrast to Meloni’s clampdowns on irregular migration and Albania’s new detention centres.
Critics see her recent statements as a calculated attempt to soften her image on issues where her government has drawn fierce backlash, like poverty and migration.
“Meloni never had a particularly strong relationship with this Pope, largely because the right has never viewed Francis as its primary Catholic reference point, given his positions,” political analyst and professor at LUISS University Lorenzo Castellani said.
Still, he added, “she managed to frame the Italian diplomatic relationship around areas of agreement – and there was a genuine mutual sympathy.”
She’s shown an exceptional ability to build bridges, enabling surprisingly “strong relationships even with figures her critics would have considered unlikely, like Biden or Ursula von der Leyen,” Salvatore Vassallo, a political scientist at the University of Bologna and director of the Cattaneo Institute said.
“Even Pope Francis, who, it seems, regarded her with genuine sympathy.”
Vassallo also said he saw a possible shift among Catholic voters, who are traditionally aligned with the centre-left but are uncomfortable with Italy’s Democratic Party’s recent leftward turn.
In contrast, Castellani noted Meloni’s appeal to religious values may hold limited electoral sway, suggesting that the true strategic value of the moment lies in enhancing diplomatic channels, particularly between Europe and the US.
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