Rishi Sunak makes Giorgia Meloni swoon as overly pleasant pair embrace at G7

Under-fire Rishi Sunak was asked if he was “OK” by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni as he arrived at the G7 summit.

The pair, who are close pals, shared a warm embrace when Kissy Rishi pitched up at the gathering of world leaders in Puglia, Italy. Ms Meloni, who is hosting the summit, appeared to show concern for the crisis-hit PM as she greeted him before they shared a laugh while holding hands.

Ms Meloni, who as a teenager was an activist with the neofascist organisation Movimento Sociale Italiano, grasped Mr Sunak’s shoulders as he leaned in to kiss her cheek before rocking back and laughing in delight.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so maybe let’s all just sit back and have a good old look at these…

The two seemed to share a joke during their warm greeting, then wrapped their arms around each other’s backs for photographs before clasping hands again.

In contrast, Ms Meloni appeared stony-faced as French president Emmanuel Macron greeted her, quickly turning away from him as he walked towards the other world leaders. And she reserved a chilly demeanour for European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, with the pair shaking hands formally without exchanging smiles.

It comes after Mr Sunak jetted into the summit early this morning, fresh from a bruising Sky News debate in Grimsby. The two-day trip could be his last international summit as PM as the Tories face wipeout at the polls.

Mr Sunak and hardliner Ms Meloni have become allies and fast friends, with the PM jetting to Rome last year to attend a gathering for her far-right Brothers of Italy party. They share hardline views on immigration and have become personal friends. But Mr Sunak’s closeness with a leader who counts far-right Hungarian PM Viktor Orban as an ally has triggered concerns.

Orban recently backed a plea from Marine Le Pen to Ms Meloni to form a hard-right supergroup in the next European Parliament, amid a rise in support for far-right parties across Europe. In an interview with French magazine Le Point, the Hungarian PM said of Meloni and Le Pen that the “future of the sovereignist camp in Europe, and of the right in general, now rests in the hands of two women”.

If they work together, he argued, “within a single group or a coalition, they will be a force for Europe”.

Ms Meloni, who was elected in October 2022, recently defended the Movimento Sociale Italiano group, which was founded by former followers of Italian fascism.

“It was a party of the democratic right,” she claimed in 2023, adding that it “ferried millions of Italians defeated by the war towards democracy”.