Giorgia Meloni, and not the activists on the sailing boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla, is using the terrible conflict in Gaza as a political weapon for domestic purposes: she wants to delegitimise those who criticise the government and fuel new divisions in the country (I deliberately use the word “country” and not “nation”, a word that evokes uniformity and blind obedience to the leader). Above all, she shows that she does not want to understand the motivations of those who boarded those boats: women and men who chose concrete solidarity, taking personal risks, and above all acted with full legitimacy. A gesture that thousands of people, spontaneously filling the squares of many cities in Europe, immediately recognised and supported. A mobilisation not seen since the climate marches or the protests against the war in Iraq, with a true supranational dimension and value. 

That is why it was disheartening to hear her reduce everything to an operation “against the government” – a statement that is egocentric to say the least, given that the Flotilla brings together activists from 44 countries. Or to dismiss their commitment as motivated by reasons other than helping the Gazans, when in fact the objective was clear: to bring aid that governments have failed to bring to the Gazans, but also to make clear to everyone the illegality of Israel's aid and sea blockade and the inaction of governments. The Italian government's decision not to pay for the activists' return flight and to deny them lawyers, unlike Spain, was also petty, truly petty, considering the state flight paid for the indicted Libyan criminal Al-Mashri a few months ago. Especially considering that Israel is now asking everyone to sign a statement accepting responsibility for illegal entry into Israel: which, of course, never happened, as the boats were stopped in international waters.

Power seems to have gone to Meloni's head. She appears increasingly convinced that winning the elections means having the right to govern without challenge: the less the manoeuvrer is disturbed, the better. This explains her growing intolerance of the press and dissent, which she treats with condescension and arrogance, unlike when she came to power, underlying her being an “underdog” who knew what it is to be excluded from public debates. She remains a hard-line right-wing leader who loves to have supporters, but increasingly dislikes those who think for themselves.

And that is a shame. I am certainly not one of her supporters, but she is, or should be, the President of everyone. Instead, at crucial moments, she always chooses to mark her territory and assert her own reasons. Thus, she accuses the Flotilla activists of “irresponsibility”, while absolving Israel and its army, which illegally occupy a stretch of sea without any legal authority, acting in fact as “pirates”, while continuing their destruction and massacres. Meanwhile, Italy continues to block timid European initiatives to sanction Israel, and it was only at the end of the first half of 2025 that the Minister of  Defence Crosetto's statement on stopping arms supplies became a reality. Until then, contracts signed before 8 October 2023 had not been touched, and in any case today Israel remains Italy's second largest supplier of arms after the United States.

Three observations on the importance of the Flotilla operation, even though it did not reach Gazah.

1. It reaffirmed that peaceful action by ordinary citizens is possible and must be defended. It is serious that European governments have been so weak, that the Italian and Spanish navies withdrew just when their presence was needed and chose not to oppose the illegality of the Israeli blockade. These double standards allow Israel to continue its massacres and ultimately to close off any glimmer of real solution because it can still do whatever it wants.
2. It is a response, at least in part, to the frustration and pain we feel in the face of hundreds of lives wiped out every week, immense suffering and the inadequacy of all democratic governments. The rules and tools to stop these atrocities exist, but every day they are dismantled not only by criminal acts of States like Israel or Russia, Myahmar , China or the US (see what happens in the sea off Venezuela) , but also because our own government ignore them. But normalising violations of international law is a blow to democracy and freedom for everyone; it is a dangerous trend and not just for the direct victims.
3. The Flotilla showed that it is possible to act within the rules: if they do not work, the fault lies with those who refuse to enforce them.

This is why, once again, Meloni misses an opportunity: that of behaving like a stateswoman. Instead of cheerleading a crude and divisive political culture – the same as that of her friends Trump and Orbán – she could have denounced the illegality of Netanyahu's actions and used popular mobilisation as leverage for Italy to play a positive role on the international stage. It is truly shameful to talk about prejudice against the “peace” agreement signed by Trump and Netanyahu over the heads of the Palestinians because of the Flotilla actions, when it is clear to everyone that the reasons for its possible and certainly unwanted failure will be Netanyahu's unwillingness to truly end the war and Hamas's insane intransigence. The real prejudice to peace is created by those who continue to turn a blind eye to Israel's crimes, who foment rather than defeat terrorism, and who ignore the desire of citizens to participate.

Because it is precisely from there – from those ordinary people, determined to defend legality and humanity – that the clearest signal comes: politics can and must do more.