Last Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made an unannounced emergency trip to the Gulf region to meet with Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders, aiming to secure energy supplies and ensure Italian corporate profits amid the US-led war against Iran.
Speaking to TG1, Meloni said she was visiting with Gulf leaders because they are “strategic countries for our interests, they are friendly countries, but above all, we do it to protect the tens of thousands of Italians who are present in the region. The mission is a gesture of solidarity towards friendly nations, but clearly also to guarantee Italy the energy supplies that are necessary. I have already been, as you know, in Algeria to guarantee gas. ... Today I am in the Gulf to discuss, above all, oil. About 15 percent of the oil that is necessary for Italy.”
Meloni did not make any overt criticism of the war of extermination the US government is waging against Iran. However, it is evident that she was trying to calm sections of the ruling class who are worried that the US war with Iran can shatter Italy’s economy by cutting off its energy supply, and who are terrified of opposition from below, in the working class.
Iranian attacks have knocked out 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, QatarEnergy’s CEO and state minister for energy affairs told Reuters last month. Italy was informed that its Gulf supplier had paused LNG deliveries due to the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz and would not ship 10 cargoes between April and mid-June. Italy will begin receiving liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Golden Pass LNG facility in the United States, a joint venture between QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil, only beginning in June.
The war in Iran has also plunged Italy and other European nations into a diplomatic crisis with the Trump Administration. In recent days, US President Trump has repeatedly attacked both European allies and NATO for their limited support for his unbridled war.
Meloni responded, “Even after Sigonella, what are our relations with the United States? I continue to believe that on the geopolitical level, Europe does not have much to gain from a divergence with the United States. However, our job is above all to defend our national interests. And when we disagree, we have to say it. And this time we disagree.”
Meloni has often been one of Trump’s closest supporters among European leaders, and her carefully-worded remarks indicate that this war will create explosive conflicts between US and European imperialism. However, her government will react not based on democratic sentiments of opposition to genocide and war in the US and European populations. It will pursue imperialist national interests via a fascistic policy, under conditions where class tensions in Italy and across Europe are set to explode.
While all Italian political parties hypocritically invoke Article 11 of the Italian Constitution, which rejects war as an instrument of national policy, Italy remains deeply integrated into the US-led war machine. It hosts a dense network of bases, logistical hubs and intelligence facilities central to US military operations across the Mediterranean and Middle East.
The Italian coalition government’s official line, “We are not at war, and we do not wish to enter one,” is one of “national autonomy”. It proclaims that this “is not our war.” However, Italy is supplying the Arab oil sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf with weapons to counter Iranian retaliatory attacks and is assessing further requests as they are made.
Italy’s investment in the Gulf is a two-way $50 billion strategic corridor: Italy invests through its energy, defense and industrial corporations, while Gulf sovereign wealth funds invest in Italy’s AI, infrastructure and clean-energy sectors. This has become central to Meloni’s economic policy. The largest Gulf partners are the United Arab Emirates, estimated at $40 billion, Saudi Arabia, estimated at $10 billion, and Qatar, estimated at $8 to $10 billion.
Meloni’s trip to the Gulf is both a diplomatic mission and an exercise in domestic political damage control. Her government faces mounting unpopularity after last month’s failed national referendum, while anger continues to grow over its unequivocal support for the Gaza genocide. The widening war against Iran is fueling hostility among workers and youth not only in Italy but across all the NATO countries.
This geopolitical crisis is now feeding directly into everyday social tensions at home. Since the outbreak of the war, fuel prices have surged from average levels of €1.71 per liter for diesel and €1.56 per liter for petrol to highs of €2.50 and €2.05, respectively, intensifying pressure on households, transport workers and small businesses. Seeking to contain the backlash, Meloni announced a limited extension of fuel excise tax cuts together with narrowly targeted aid for farmers and exporters.
These measures have done little to ease public anger. Prices remain stubbornly high and are expected to rise further following government-imposed refueling restrictions at Milan Linate, Venice, Bologna, and Treviso airports from 4–9 April 2026, officially blamed on supply shortages.
While Meloni has publicly threatened to tax energy companies profiting from the crisis, the contradiction is unmistakable: these are the same corporate and state-linked interests whose partnerships and investments she is actively advancing during her Gulf visit.
Meloni’s relations with coalition partners are becoming increasingly volatile. Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia are both using the government’s weakened position to press for greater control over the next political agenda, particularly on economic policy, electoral reform and Italy’s relationship with the European Union. While the coalition continues to publicly dismiss the prospect of early elections, the crisis has weakened Meloni’s rule amid escalating war and economic crisis.
A struggle against war, austerity and the Meloni government can only proceed by mobilizing the working class independently of Italy’s corrupt political establishment. Whatever the tactical differences separating the Democratic Party, the Lega or other factions of the ruling elite, they share an underlying program of militarisation abroad, austerity at home, and the defense of corporate and financial interests. The crisis extends beyond a single government or leader: it is rooted in the broader political consensus in the Italian ruling class in favor of war.
For this reason, the central challenge facing the Italian working class is not simply to register opposition to Meloni, but to turn that anger into an independent and conscious political movement against war, genocide and fascism. Such a movement would need to link the struggles of workers and youth in Italy, across Europe and internationally, forging solidarity across borders against war, social cuts and exploitation.