Meloni's Minister Told Her To Contest From Delhi After Seeing Posters: 'You'd Win With A Million Votes'

Last Updated:June 25, 2026, 16:42 IST

Meloni travelled to India twice in 2023—first to participate in the eighth edition of the Raisina Dialogue in March and later for the G20 Leaders' Summit in September.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani once jokingly suggested that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni contest an election from New Delhi after being struck by the sheer number of posters welcoming her to the Indian capital during her 2023 visit.

The anecdote finds a place in Giorgia’s Vision, the Italian Prime Minister’s newly released book, where she recalls how roads across New Delhi were lined with large posters bearing her smiling portrait ahead of her arrival and later thanking her for the visit.

Meloni writes that the words “Welcome" and “Thank You" were what caught her attention the most—first on her arrival and then again when she departed.

“When I arrived, there was a poster with my face and the word ‘Welcome’ every few feet along the road. When I left, the posters showed the same image, but now read ‘Thank you for visiting’.

“My colleague Antonio Tajani, who was with me, joked: ‘With all these posters, if you ran for the New Delhi constituency, you’d get a million votes’," Meloni writes while recalling her March 2023 visit.

Meloni travelled to India twice in 2023—first to participate in the eighth edition of the Raisina Dialogue in March and later for the G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by New Delhi in September.

The Italian leader, who shares a warm rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has affectionately become part of the social media-coined “Melodi" duo, reflects in the chapter Head Held High Among the World Greats that successful diplomacy often begins by moving beyond rigid formalities and discovering “your personal key" to connecting with fellow leaders.

“A few witty words, a personal story, a common interest—it can make all the difference," she observes in the book, which is based on a series of conversations with Italian journalist Alessandro Sallusti.

To make that point, Meloni strings together a series of deeply personal encounters with world leaders, arguing that enduring diplomatic relationships are often forged in moments far removed from negotiating tables and official communiqués.

One such moment unfolded during her first meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied, whom she describes as a strong-willed leader and a formidable negotiator.

After a bilateral meeting that stretched for nearly two hours, Saied invited her to admire the sea from his residence. Meloni, who says she had resumed smoking after giving it up for 13 years, hesitantly asked whether she could light a cigarette.

The request unexpectedly transformed the atmosphere.

“He was overjoyed! He pulled out his own pack of cigarettes, and that coffee and cigarette break became our moment," she recalls, describing how the informal exchange helped lay the foundation for one of her strongest diplomatic relationships.

Elsewhere in the book, Meloni recounts similar episodes where shared interests and thoughtful gestures broke the ice more effectively than carefully drafted diplomatic talking points.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, whom she describes as one of the most spontaneous and engaging personalities she has encountered, regularly exchanges messages with her on current affairs in fluent Italian.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, aware of her fondness for Italian wines and the colour orange, once surprised her with a bouquet of orange roses on her birthday.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida presented her daughter, Ginevra, with a giant Hello Kitty doll during the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, while another of her passions—J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings—found an unexpected place in diplomacy during a visit to Poland.

“When I visited Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki—knowing how much I love Tolkien—took me for a coffee at a café themed after ‘The Lord of the Rings’. We stood there talking about a huge, gorgeous map of Middle-earth," she writes.

Another gesture that particularly moved her came from Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Ahead of a bilateral meeting in Rome, he had her earlier memoir, I Am Giorgia, translated into Uzbek and presented her with a specially bound copy.

For Meloni, these seemingly ordinary episodes—a cigarette overlooking the Mediterranean, a conversation about Middle-earth, a bouquet of roses, a child’s toy from Japan or a translated book from Uzbekistan—illustrate a larger truth about diplomacy.

Behind summit declarations, joint statements and carefully choreographed handshakes, she argues, it is often personal warmth, humour and genuine curiosity that help leaders build trust and sustain relationships.

Structured as a series of candid conversations with journalist Alessandro Sallusti, Giorgia’s Vision moves beyond a conventional political memoir into a broader reflection on leadership, national identity, meritocracy, family, faith and the future of Western civilisation.

The foreword to the book has been written by US Vice President J D Vance.

Published in India by Rupa Publications and priced at Rs 695, Giorgia’s Vision is currently available through online and offline retailers.

About the Author

Shankhyaneel Sarkar

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has c...Read More

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