Jo McKenna: Italy Correspondent on Giorgia Meloni receiving a Global Citizen Award

Italy’s Prime Minister is set to receive a prestigious award. 

Elon Musk is set to present Giorgia Meloni with the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award in New York, an award presented to key global citizens seeking to improve the state of the world. 

Italy Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking that she’s making all the right noises about working on a multilateral level, talking about needing to work for peace and fight climate change at the UN Summit of the Future in New York. 

She said that she’s been talking about crises presenting opportunities, a sentiment McKenna says many Italians probably would not be sharing.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now it is Tuesday, but it's a tree bonus Tuesday.
Let's call it bonus Tuesday. Joe McKinnon's with us and
eaterly very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good morning, ye.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm looking at a photo currently of Georgia Maloney, who
seems to have got some sort of vice like grip
on Elon Muskin, doesn't want to let him go, and
she's looked happier than she's ever looked. What an earth
is going on?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
What is going on? They're the best of buddies at
the moment. I think he's due to present her with
the Global Citizen Award at a ceremony in New York,
if he hasn't done it already. The question is, will
that mean that he's looking for special favors from Georgia
Maloney for his companies in Italy? Are not really sure
about that at the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Isn't that funny to think that George Maloney. For all
of the critics of Georgia Maloney, she was far right.
She was a crazy Look at it. Now they're handing
awards to her as a global citizen, Yes.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
And she's making all the right noises about working on
a multilateral level. We need to work for peace and
climate and fight climate change and all the rest of it.
At this You and Summit of the Future in New York,
talking about crises presenting opportunities, I think many Italians would
not be thinking the same way on that at front
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, the poll, this bloke who quit we talked about
a couple of weeks ago, the culture minists who had
the social media influencer woman, et cetera. Anyway, this has
affected the government's polls.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
It looks like it we're starting to see I mean,
I haven't seen a definitive figure, but I'm starting to
see some sign in the media that one in three
Italians believe that this will weaken Maloney. And this woman
who had her eyes on a consultancy in the Cultural
ministry has obviously caused a great deal of trouble and
people are not happy about it. But we would be

(01:41):
interesting to see the polls because the last poll I
think we had on Maloney Mike was still had her
at around twenty seven percent, so she was quite strong.
But we might see some changes in the next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Very interesting. Now the spag and A can update. You
haven't tried it, have you.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I didn't find it, but I understand it's on sale
in London there for the weekend, and one of the reporters,
one of the Italian reporters, has gone across and has
been rajing about shock horror. It's even worse than we
expect it. It smells like dog food and they're even slicing
the spaghetti into smaller pieces. So it's not a good

(02:17):
look for the Italians. They're very upset about this.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I take it you can't buy it in Italy.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
I haven't seen it on sale yet. I think they're
targeting the UK market because the Brits might be more vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Spanish Bagan, Are you standing in the rain? Is it
raining in the background of my hut? It is, yes,
it is because I was noted. Are you in Italy
at the moment? You're back home in landed in Italy? No,
it's just the reason I asked that is because the
dreadful floods across parts of Europe. But then I thought
there was a storm heading into Italy somewhere. Am I
correct in saying that I've literally made that up?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes? You might remember we've talked about the floods. We've
had the return of the floods in Emlia Romagna and
the government to its creditors, started throwing money at some
of those families and victims up there. Small amounts, but yeah,
a lot of appeal in the area around Bologna in
the north central part of Italy.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Was a pleasure. Joe ketchup very much, Joe McKenna.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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