{"id":206227,"date":"2025-12-27T06:51:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T06:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/206227\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T06:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T06:51:36","slug":"italian-pm-giorgia-meloni-the-end-of-2025-has-been-difficult-next-year-will-be-much-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/206227\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian PM Giorgia Meloni: &#8216;The end of 2025 has been difficult \u2014 next year will be much worse&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has issued a dire warning to government staff \u2014 predicting that 2026 \u201cwill be much worse\u201d than 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The straight-talking conservative populist, 48, made the not-so-festive forecast on Tuesday during her traditional Christmas greeting exchange to staff at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe end of 2025 has been difficult for all of us. Don\u2019t worry, because next year will be much worse,\u201d Meloni said, as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ansa.it\/sito\/notizie\/politica\/2025\/12\/23\/meloni-ai-dipendenti-di-chigi-un-anno-tosto-il-2026-sara-molto-peggio_76c5b647-f8d6-4da0-8a98-fcb0d5ff92c7.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">reported by Italian outlet Ansa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38014255\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/italys-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni-116507344.jpg\" alt=\"Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, waiting at Palazzo Chigi.\" class=\"wp-image-38014255\"  \/>Italy\u2019s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has issued a dire warning to her nation. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo rest properly during these holidays, because we must continue to give answers to this extraordinary nation,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking from the Government Palace in Rome, Meloni described 2025 as a year defined by constant struggle \u2014 framing her administration as a \u201cfamily\u201d that had been fighting on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n<p>The speech is part of an annual tradition in which Italy\u2019s leader usually delivers a message of hope to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>For example, last year, Meloni wished a \u201cmerry Christmas,\u201d to those who \u201ccan\u2019t be with their families\u201d during the holidays, including essential service workers such as the armed forces, police, doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38014251\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/giorgia-meloni-leader-brothers-italy-117832188.jpg\" alt=\"Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, with a cigarette in her mouth and a pack of cigarettes in her hand, at a general election campaign rally.\" class=\"wp-image-38014251\"  \/>She acknowledged 2025 had been hard, but predicted 2026 \u201cwill be much worse.\u201d Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Her comments came as Italy\u2019s government prepares to debate extending arms sales to Ukraine at the final Cabinet meeting of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Northern League, a right-wing junior partner in Italy\u2019s ruling coalition, is trying to impose restrictions on further weapons sales.<\/p>\n<p>Her speech also appeared to mark a drastic change from Meloni\u2019s more optimistic rhetoric over the past two years, during which time she has positioned herself as a pragmatic bridge between the US and the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>But with Italy entering 2026 with one of the highest levels of public debt in the Eurozone, around 137% of GDP, along with high interest rates and a government divided over ongoing support to Ukraine, Meloni\u2019s remarks were far more somber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has issued a dire warning to government staff \u2014 predicting that 2026 \u201cwill&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,16012,85,46,2971,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-206227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-giorgia-meloni","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-italy","14":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}