Italy’s premier defends her friendship with Musk and asserts her independence

MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended her friendship with U.S. tech billionaire and Trump confidant Elon Musk, telling Italian lawmakers that she would not be influenced in areas where he has economic interests.

“I can be a friend of Elon Musk and at the same time the head of the first Italian government that made a new law to regulate private activity in space,’’ she said, responding to questions during a customary parliamentary discussion ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels this week.

Meloni has met frequently with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire since her far-right-led government came to power in 2022, keen to bring investments in Italy. Meloni’s government this summer approved a framework for foreign space companies to operate in Italy, which is expected to generate 7.3 billion euros ($7.7 billion) in investments by 2026.

Taking a swipe at her predecessors, she said previous Italian leaders “who thought they had a good relationship, even a friendship, with a foreign leader, they had to slavishly follow what the others did.”

Meloni added that she had good relationships “with many people” but “I don’t take orders from anyone.”

Meloni and Musk’s friendship has attracted attention in the past. Musk denied a romantic relationship last September after a photo of them looking fondly at each other went viral. The two were at a black-tie event in New York where Musk had presented Meloni with an award.

Musk appeared a year ago at an event for youth members of Meloni’s party in Italy. More recently, he took to social media platform X, which he controls, to attack an Italian court decision that has stymied Meloni’s plans to vet migrants rescued at sea in Albania. Musk’s comments drew a strong rebuke from Italy’s president.