Pope Leo Sends the Right into a Spin, Prevost Will Be a Thorn in Trump's Side but Also for Meloni

In the deluge of banalities and set phrases that greeted Robert Francis Prevost 's rise to the papacy from the political stands, the only politically relevant comment came from a woman who is not in politics for a living: Marina Berlusconi. " We can expect many miracles from popes. Let's hope he can help from this point of view too." The hoped-for little help was to muzzle Donald Trump , whom Silvio Berlusconi 's daughter had just attacked without diplomatic circumlocutions: " It took him just 100 days to shake the certainties on which the political and economic order had been built and to inflict a very hard blow on America's credibility. We must hope he is forced to backtrack."

It would seem that identical hopes and auspices dominated the Conclave that elected a pope who seems made on purpose to poke a finger in the eye of the White House tycoon. The American president had invested a lot in the new pope: it seems around 14 million with the aim of bringing a reactionary pope to the seat of Peter, preferably an American like Cardinal Sarah. The Donald's interest in the matter was not only or above all generic. He conquered the White House in large part thanks to the support of the Evangelicals. Being able to count on a head of the Catholic Church who was similar, or at least not hostile, would have been of immense utility from every point of view. Leo XIV appears, at least at first glance, to be the least popular of the possible candidates : he thinks the opposite of the dominus of Washington on almost everything and in particular on environmental policies and immigration. He is American, which will greatly amplify his voice in the US, but he is also a Peruvian citizen, as he was keen to point out by speaking for the first time as pontiff in Spanish instead of English. But South America is the continent from which the bulk of immigration to the US comes : more than bridges on that border, Trump wants walls.

The president has put a good face on a bad game, probably also hoping to build a positive relationship with Prevost, who is not a conservative but not even a self-confessed liberal: "The first American pontiff is a great honor. I hope to meet him soon." But Maga 's tough guys are much less cautious. For Bannon he is " an anti-Trump pontiff." For influencer Laura Loomer " another Marxist puppet." Leone, then, seems destined to have difficult relations with Putin too and from this point of view his election is also a problem for Trump . As paradoxical as it may seem, in Italy the political weight of the pontiff, once notable, is now reduced to a minimum. Relations with Oltretevere are still an important card up the sleeve of politicians who can boast of them but the Vatican actually has little influence, if not on a few specific issues.

This explains the carbon copy statements that greeted his rise, more or less identical whether they came from the majority or the opposition. But the hypothesis, in reality all to be verified but at least not improbable, of a pontificate in full contrast with Trump's directions could turn out to be a much bigger problem for the right than Francis's unbalanced left-leaning ideology. It is no coincidence that that ideological distance did not prevent him from maintaining close relations with Giorgia Meloni and that the prime minister really considered " the pope of the last" a sort of spiritual father. But with an anti-Trump pope the discussion would be very different and much thornier. It is no coincidence that Daniela Santanché immediately donned the toga of the defense attorney: " It is not right to intervene with a straight leg on a president who is our ally ". And from FI the reply of Licia Ronzulli arrived promptly: "Marina is a stimulus for great reflection and must be listened to".

They may seem like squabbles and they really would be if the Trump card were not shaping up as the only perhaps wrong move made by the prime minister since she has been prime minister. The equidistance between the White House and the EU is penalizing her, because she has not obtained anything concrete from Trump and the slippage has distanced her from the European control room, firmly reoccupied by Macron and Merz. The unpopularity of the Washington bully in Italy could reverberate on that of his ally at Palazzo Chigi. In short, in a situation that from this point of view is already difficult for Giorgia, all that is missing is for the vicar of Christ to get involved.

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David Romoli