Combo picture shows Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posts a video of her with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her X account on the sidelines of the G7 Outreach Summit, in Apulia on June 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI

“Hi friends, from #Melodi”, this is how Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni captioned a small selfie video showing her camaraderie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders met on June 14 towards the end of Prime Minister Modi’s day-long visit to Apulia, southern Italy, during which he thanked the Italian Prime Minister for the invitation to attend the G7 Summit. This was his first foreign visit after assuming charge for a historic third term as the prime minister.

The five-second video was shared by Ms. Meloni on her X account on June 15.

“Hello from the Melodi team,” the 47-year-old Italian leader, the country’s first woman Prime Minister, said in the video, in which Mr. Modi, 73, was seen laughing behind her.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-shared the video and wrote, “Long live India-Italy friendship!”.

Earlier on June 15, a selfie of the two leaders at the G7 Summit went viral.

In December last year, the two leaders had clicked a selfie on the sidelines of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai.

Sharing the picture, Ms. Meloni wrote in the caption, “Good friends at COP28, #Melodi.” During their bilateral talks on June 14, the two leaders reviewed the progress of the bilateral strategic partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation in global fora and multilateral initiatives, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.

“Had a very good meeting with PM @GiorgiaMeloni,” Prime Minister Modi wrote on X.

“We discussed ways to further cement India-Italy relations in areas like commerce, energy, defence, telecom and more. Our nations will work together in futuristic areas like biofuels, food processing and critical minerals,” he said after the meeting.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has separated from her television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday she had separated from her television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno, who has drawn criticism in recent weeks for sexist comments made on and off air.

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” PM Meloni wrote on her social media accounts. “Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it,” she added.

The couple have a seven-year-old daughter.

Mr. Giambruno is the presenter of a news programme transmitted by Mediaset, part of the MFE media group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the former premier and Meloni ally.

On two days this week, another Mediaset show broadcast off-air excerpts from Mr. Giambruno’s programme showing him using foul language and appearing to make advances to a female colleague.

“Why didn’t I meet you before?”, he tells her.

In the second, more explicit recording aired on Thursday, Mr. Giambruno is heard boasting about an affair and telling female colleagues they can work for him if they take part in group sex.

The TV journalist had already been widely criticised in August for apparent victim-blaming comments following a gang rape case.

“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk – there shouldn’t be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem – but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf,” he said during his programme.

PM Meloni had said after that episode that she should not be judged for comments made by her partner, and that in future she would not answer questions about his behaviour.