Pope Leo called on U.S. President Donald Trump not to “break apart” the transatlantic alliance after the Republican leader harshly criticized Europe in an interview with POLITICO.  Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Castel Gandolfo near Rome, the pontiff said Trump’s recent statements — in which he derided European leaders as “weak” and the continent as “decaying” — were an attempt to destroy the U.S.-Europe relationship.  “The remarks that were made about Europe also in interviews recently I think are trying to break apart what I think needs to be a very important alliance today and in the future,” Pope Leo said.    Trump slammed Europe as poorly governed and failing to regulate migration in an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns that aired Tuesday in a special episode of The Conversation podcast.   “I think they’re weak,” Trump said, referring to the continent’s presidents and prime ministers, adding, “I think they don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do.”  Pope Leo added the Trump administration’s peace plan for Ukraine “unfortunately” marks “a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States.”  Trump’s proposal to end the war, which sidelined Brussels and included several major concessions to Russia, including ceding vast swathes of Ukrainian territory and capping the size of its military, drew alarm from Kyiv and its European allies and led to frenzied negotiations in Geneva to come up with an alternative framework.  “It’s a program that President Trump and his advisers put together. He’s the president of the United States and he has a right to do that,” Pope Leo added.  But the Catholic leader said brokering peace talks “without including Europe” was “unrealistic.” “I really think that Europe’s role is very important … seeking a peace agreement without including Europe in the conversations, it’s not realistic,” he said. “The war is in Europe. I think in the guarantees of security that are also being sought today and in the future, Europe must be part of them.” Pope Leo — a Chicago native who was inaugurated in May as the first pontiff from North America — has hit out at Trump before, condemning Washington’s treatment of migrants as “inhuman” and urging him not to invade Venezuela.  Trump also tangled with Pope Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who slammed the U.S.-Mexico border wall as “not Christian” and, months before his death, called Trump’s mass deportation plans a “disgrace.” Trump in turn branded him a “very political person.” Despite the current pontiff’s criticism, Trump signaled openness to talking or meeting with Leo in remarks to POLITICO.  “Sure, I will. Why not?” he said.   

THE ALTAR BOYS WHO GREW UP TOGETHER — AND TRIED TO KEEP EUROPE’S CENTER FROM CRUMBING The lives of Daniel Caspary and René Repasi often overlapped as they grew up. In the European Parliament, they became political rivals — but were also united in common cause. By MAX GRIERA and NETTE NÖSTLINGER in Stutensee, Germany Photo-illustrations by Klawe Rzeczy for POLITICO Sometimes it’s the least extraordinary places that throw up the most startling of coincidences.   In this case, a tiny German town — nothing special: a stone’s throw from the Rhine river, a small 18th century castle, the kind of suburban sleepiness where boys like Daniel Caspary and René Repasi while away their teenage years cycling to the city to party or the nearest lake to cool off — has produced rival leading European politicians who have been key to assuring EU political stability in a time of unprecedented fragmentation.  The way their lives have intertwined is astonishing. Caspary, now 49, and Repasi, three years his junior, went to the same school. There, they both organized a cabaret of political satire. They honed their skills on the student newspaper. They were both altar boys in the same church. And they both scored their first political victories on their town’s council. Almost since birth, their lives have taken staggeringly parallel paths. Now, they’re on different sides in the European Parliament.  Advertisement Caspary is leader in the Parliament of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the largest faction in the European People’s Party. Repasi is the equivalent for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the third-largest national delegation in the Socialists and Democrats group. The EPP and the S&D are the two biggest Parliament groups and for decades have between them held a grip on EU power. Despite the rivalry between their umbrella political families, with antagonism only worsening since the 2024 EU elections, the two men have cemented their reputation as the backchannels between the two sides, attempting to safeguard what in EU circles is known as the “grand coalition” between center right and center left. That’s significant because the Parliament is fractured like never before. Aping a trend seen across western democracies, the middle ground is crumbling. Politicians like Caspary and Repasi represent the old ways of doing things ― political opponents, yes, but ready to put aside their differences so their two sides can work together to face down the extremes. Increasingly, that’s no longer a given in the European Parliament. That was evident when the EPP, earlier this month, abandoned its traditional centrist allies and pressed ahead with the support of far-right groups to approve cuts to green rules.  Daniel Caspary, the charismatic old-school conservative deeply rooted in his community, in his class photo from the year he graduated. | Stutensee’s Thomas Mann-Gymnasium 1993-1994 annuary René Repasi, the cosmopolitan and slick social democrat with an impressive track record in academia, in his class photo from the year before he graduated. | Stutensee’s Thomas Mann-Gymnasium 1993-1994 annuary A good relationship between the pair has been particularly useful because the leaders of the two pan-European groups rarely conceal their mutual dislike and are increasingly finding it tough to reach compromise positions on new laws, such as on green rules for business or on controlling migration.  “Of course we have many differences politically, but it’s good if you can talk,” Caspary told POLITICO. “We’ve known each other for ages … We know that we can trust each other.”   “He was always a sort of leading figure,” Repasi said, remembering their shared childhoods in Stutensee. I “looked up to him.”  Advertisement While their paths overlapped, they could barely be more different personally and politically. Caspary is the charismatic old-school conservative deeply rooted in his community, pressing the flesh at local events and using the language of the person in the street. He still lives in the area. Repasi, by contrast, is the cosmopolitan ― the slick social democrat with an impressive track record in academia, a man of scholarly rhetoric who moved away from Germany completely. “What Repasi lacks,” said Mathias Zurawski, a journalist who attended the same school, “Caspary offers. And vice versa.”   ALTAR BOYS Stutensee’s discreet Catholic St. Josef Church is in the town’s backstreets. The garden surrounding it boasts abundant fruit trees. Posters advertise meetings of the scout group.  It’s humble in comparison to the more spectacular Protestant church on the main street. It’s here where the Caspary and Repasi families worshipped. And it’s where the two boys built trust in each other.  “We met for the first time in the youth groups of the Catholic church,” Caspary said. “We talked about this. I think this stands for some values. We always try to be honest.”  Those early religious experiences play a big role in Caspary’s life today, said Ansgar Mayr, a regional CDU politician who has known him since he made his first steps in politics.    Stutensee’s St Josef Catholic Church, where Caspary and Repasi used to serve as altar boys. | Max Griera/POLITICO “He was greatly influenced by his time in the Catholic Church and also his time with the Scouts, who are Catholic Scouts,” Mayr said. “His circle of friends, outside the political bubble, comes very much from the Catholic Church and parish youth groups.”   The pair served as altar boys, assisting the priest at Mass and kneeling as part of the liturgy. On Christmas, they sang carols around town. The Social Democrat Repasi’s Catholicism has lapsed somewhat, but despite being “one of those guys who go to church only at Christmas,” he said Christian values serve as guidance for his daily life and political career. CHAOS AND REVOLUTION The pair’s paths crossed again as teenagers in high school. The Thomas-Mann Gymnasium is just a stone’s throw from the church. It’s seen better days and is due to be renovated next year. For now, it still looks as it did in the 1990s. It’s easy to imagine Caspary and Repasi here. The lockers they’d have used line the corridors and the classrooms are plain, aside from the vintage orange cubical washbasins. In those years, they both dived into extracurricular activities. Caspary founded an annual political cabaret show. At 18, he handed the organizing baton to Repasi, who suddenly found himself facing the daunting task, he said, of raising money to cover costs.  “If the whole thing was a success, [that] was due to the fact that he [Caspary] handed it over, and we did the transition period together,” said Repasi.  Advertisement The boys’ school yearbooks portray two kids destined for greater things. Alongside a photo of Caspary humorously dressed as a medic, his classmates described him as “source of the most creative interjections (‘yes, but…’) that elicit a wide range of reactions from teachers, ranging from amusement to annoyance.” It’s “hard to believe,” the entry said, “that this chaotic person will one day take on a leading role as a conservative politician.”  Repasi’s friends saw him as a revolutionary. His portrait shows him wearing a Soviet hat. “Discussions with him often turn into fights,” his schoolmates said. “But no one else is as good at arguing objectively.”  The boys also bumped into each other on the school’s newspaper, Pepperoni. Caspary was already acting as a sporadic school reporter, when Repasi — a couple of years later — became editor in chief. The boys weren’t scared of hitting the establishment where it hurt. Pepperoni signified “something that stings”  so was “a means to express criticism,” said former teacher Sabine Graf, who taught French and German at the school at the time.  Yearbook of Daniel Caspary, featuring a photo of Thomas Mann blended with Albert Einstein’s famous tongue picture, symbolizing science. | 50 years anniversary book, Thomas Mann Gymnasium 1974-2024 Covers of the Pepperoni school magazine, which both Caspary and Repasi contributed to. | 50 years anniversary book, Thomas Mann Gymnasium 1974-2024 Yearbook of René Repasi, featuring a pig with a black flag, symbolizing social class revolution and anarchism. | 50 years anniversary book, Thomas Mann Gymnasium 1974-2024 Those shared experiences form the basis of the two men’s relationship in the Parliament today. “You can always say you can trust me,” Repasi said. “But actually you can only do so if you have experienced it. And I experienced it in my past that I can trust him and that I can rely on him.”  VOTERS’ CRITICISM These days, Stutensee isn’t immune to the political winds that blow across the whole of Europe. With populism, of right and left, on the rise, centrist politicians who broadly prefer to focus on points of agreement rather than division aren’t in vogue. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in second in Germany’s national election earlier this year ― the best showing for a far-right party since the Nazi rise to power. The AfD isn’t represented on the city council here, but locals acknowledge there’s a desire to kick the establishment. An establishment symbolized by men like Caspary and Repasi. Despite their deep roots in the town, many reject the idea they’re local heroes. “They show up at some celebratory events around town with their family a couple of times a year, but you don’t hear from them afterwards,” said a 37-year-old bartender at the smoke-filled bar in town, who gives his name only as Dominik. A handful of people at the bar hear his remarks and nod.  Dominik also went to Thomas-Mann Gymnasium. He knew Caspary’s brother. But he insisted neither politician can be trusted. They’re not “looking out for the interests of the people,” he said.  But early on in their careers, the two politicians made some tangible changes for locals. When they were both on their school’s student council,  Caspary campaigned for a night bus line between Stutensee and the city of Karlsruhe, 10km away. In some ways, he succeeded, advancing a cause that led to the construction of a durable tram connection built years later.   “During this campaign, I realized that if you start engaging with the town representatives, like the mayor, like the city council members, then you can change things,” Caspary said.      Advertisement Repasi’s political awakening came when the regional government tried to cut by a year the time that students attended high school to align practices with other European countries. The school’s leadership wanted to participate in the pilot, despite most students being opposed. “I found it total nonsense,” Repasi said. “I was mobilizing the school kids to come to this meeting of the municipal council, and I think for the first time ever it was totally full.”     The students cheered loudly when their arguments, compiled by Repasi, were presented to the mayor. The council ultimately rejected the plan. If the bus line was Caspary’s first political victory, this was Repasi’s.  MR. STUTENSEE VS. MR. EUROPE Eventually, they drifted apart.   These days, Caspary’s image is one of a politician still deeply rooted to his home, who found his way to Brussels by chance. People close to him describe him as a family man, raising his five children just a few kilometers from where he grew up. Repasi, in contrast, is seen as a professor-turned-politician, someone with a strong passion for European affairs who deliberately chose to build his life abroad.   Classroom of Thomas Mann Gymnasium, intact since Caspary and Repasi studied in it. | Max Griera/POLITICO For Repasi, who was raised by a German mother and Hungarian father, “cosmopolitanism runs through his life,” said Graf, the schoolteacher. She and another former teacher both recalled his in-depth study on the Yugoslav Wars. He became a professor of European law in Geneva and Rotterdam, where he raised two sons with his Polish wife.    Caspary was elected to the European Parliament almost by accident in 2004, at 28, because of the CDU’s exceptionally strong showing.   “My plan was to become the chairperson of the group in my city council,” he said.  Advertisement For Repasi, on the other hand, ending up working in an EU institution was his dream, according to colleagues. He even dabbled with joining Caspary in the CDU. But in his village, the party didn’t feel very welcoming, he said. “I’m Western-looking enough not to have any discrimination experiences like Turkish people, but my strange family name was strange enough in my village,” he said.   Repasi’s road to the Parliament was bumpier than Caspary’s. He ran in three elections but never made it, ultimately joining when another SPD member gave up her mandate in 2022. TOGETHER IN BRUSSELS ― AND THEN APART AGAIN Reuniting in the European Parliament was almost like a homecoming for Repasi. Caspary presented him with a basket of delicacies from the region around Stutensee. Repasi’s rise since then has been rapid. He became the head of the SPD faction in the S&D only two years after his arrival. And in that time, they’ve put their friendship to good use. Cordial catchups soon turned into high-level political negotiations. They were suddenly in charge of leading the biggest German parties in the Parliament and had to overcome the increasing estrangement between their group leaders, Manfred Weber, the head of the EPP group, and Iratxe García, the S&D chair. Caspary was elected to the European Parliament almost by accident in 2004 because of the CDU’s exceptionally strong showing. | Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images For Repasi, ending up working in an EU institution was his dream. | Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images That’s why they have been in constant dialogue, “to bring together political lines,” Caspary said. “We do speak about conflicts that are arising,” Repasi said. “Whether we can totally solve them is a different question.”  Other MEPs say the good relationship between the German conservatives and Socialists has proved critical. “The stability of the mandate” ― European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s loose coalition of centrist parties ― “is at stake, and what can help cement a stronger cooperation is the link between the CDU and SPD,” said Javi López, a Spanish S&D lawmaker and Parliament vice-president.     But nothing lasts forever and the double act is about to split once more. In October, the German government nominated Caspary to be its representative at the European Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg. Advertisement On Thursday he is expected to be confirmed by the Parliament. That will leave a gap, according to his colleagues. “Over the years, he has been a steady and unifying presence, bringing together a team of highly diverse personalities,” said Niclas Herbst, chair of the Parliament budgetary control committee, and one of the names floated to succeed Caspary. “He is, in the best sense, a true generalist — someone who can swiftly and thoroughly grasp complex political issues … I know there is great anticipation in Luxembourg for his arrival.”  When Caspary departs, Repasi will have to find himself another opposite number to build up a trusting relationship. But it remains to be seen whether the fraying ties between center right and center left can retain at least one strong thread. While that won’t be impossible, it certainly won’t come as easy as a relationship forged in little Stutensee. Out of experiences in church, student politics and the school newspaper, the foundations held up well.

DUBLIN — Independent socialist Catherine Connolly swept to a landslide victory Saturday to become Ireland’s next president, dealing a record-breaking rebuke to the two center-ground parties of government. Jubilant supporters of the 68-year-old Connolly, a lawmaker from the western city of Galway, embraced and kissed her as final results from Friday’s election were announced at the Dublin Castle count center. In her victory speech, Connolly struck an immediate note of unity. She stood side by side with Ireland’s government leaders — and pledged to challenge the far right and its anti-immigrant agenda. “Together we can shape a new republic that values everybody, that values and champions diversity … and the new people that have come to our country,” she said. “I will be an inclusive president for all of you.” Connolly won a record 63.4 percent of valid votes. Heather Humphreys of the government coalition party Fine Gael finished a distant second with 29.5 percent. Connolly’s triumph shattered the previous record set in 1959 when Eamon de Valera, the towering figure of 20th-century Irish politics, won his first term as president with 56.3 percent support. On Nov. 11, Connolly will succeed her fellow Galway socialist Michael D. Higgins, Ireland’s president since 2011, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a third seven-year term. Finishing in third and last place Saturday was Jim Gavin of the largest government party, Fianna Fáil, who won barely 7 percent of votes. Gavin, a political novice hand-picked by Prime Minister Micheál Martin, remained on the official ballot despite quitting the race midway after admitting he had pocketed €3,300 in excess rent from a tenant. Connolly won, in no small part, thanks to backing from Ireland’s five left-wing parties, most crucially Sinn Féin. All stood aside to give her a clean run on an anti-government platform, a political first for the normally fractious left. While the left celebrated from Dublin Castle to Galway, Ireland’s disgruntled conservatives left their own mark on the election — by vandalizing their ballots in unprecedented numbers. More than 200,000 ballots — or about one of every eight cast — had to be discarded. Many voters had written in the names of their own invalid choices, or drawn disparaging X marks across all three candidates. Others defaced their ballots, often with anti-immigrant messages expressed in nativist or racist terms. Their alienation reflects how the government parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, since the 1990s have largely ditched their previous bonds with Catholic conservatism and have become, like Connolly and the wider left, socially progressive and welcoming to immigrants. A Catholic conservative, Maria Steen, narrowly failed to qualify for the ballot, falling two short of the required backing from 20 lawmakers. Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, who often denounces immigrants in his social media posts, tapped out after attracting virtually no official support. Kevin Cunningham, managing director of the polling firm Ireland Thinks, called the volume of spoiled votes “enormous.” He found that more than two-thirds of protesting voters had expressed support for Steen. The final week of campaigning coincided with one of the biggest flare-ups of racist sentiment since downtown Dublin was wracked by rioting in November 2023. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, crowds of up to 2,000 people clashed with riot police protecting Citywest, a hotel and conference center southwest of Dublin that has been turned into the state’s biggest shelter for asylum seekers. That area registered one of the highest rates of spoiled ballots. And on Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who had opted not to seek the presidency herself, was subjected to vulgar threats from an anti-immigration activist as she canvassed in her central Dublin constituency for Connolly. That man, who posted video footage of his verbal assault on McDonald and other Sinn Féin canvassers, was arrested Saturday. Humphreys — who had stepped into the breach when Fine Gael’s original candidate, former European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, quit the race citing health problems — conceded defeat hours before the official result. Humphreys, too, expressed worries about the rising level of social media-driven harassment. Humphreys, a member of the Republic of Ireland’s tiny Protestant minority, said she hadn’t regretted running despite suffering a barrage of online insults belittling her family’s background. She said that vitriol had demonstrated that her country wasn’t yet ready to reconcile, and potentially unite as Irish nationalists want, with Protestants in the neighboring U.K. territory of Northern Ireland. “My family and I were subject to some absolutely awful sectarian abuse. As a country, I thought we had moved on from that,” Humphreys said. “If we’re ever to have a united Ireland, we have to respect all traditions.”

Pope Leo said he had turned down a proposal to create an artificial intelligence version of himself, warning that such technology could seriously risk human identity. The pontiff revealed that someone had asked his permission to create an “artificial pope” to allow anyone to have a personal audience.  “This artificial intelligence pope would give them answers to their questions, and I said, ‘I’m not going to authorize that,'” Leo told journalist and author Elise Allen in an interview for a biography. “If there’s anybody who should not be represented by an avatar, I would say the pope is high on the list.” Since being elected in May, Leo has repeatedly voiced concern over the potential impact of AI on humanity, in particular for the well-being of children and young people. During his first phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on May 15, the pontiff discussed working together with the Italian government “for the development of artificial intelligence that is ethical and serves humanity.” In the interview, Leo also warned about AI’s impact on employment and identity. “Human dignity has a very important relationship with the work that we do,” he said. “If we automate the whole world and only a few people have the means … there’s a big problem, a huge problem coming down the line.”

VATICAN CITY — The technicolor kaftan, leopard-print boots and silver, glitter-studded parasol suggested they were no ordinary pilgrims. An elderly and diminutive French nun, arm-in-arm with a statuesque Italian in cut-off denim shorts and a rainbow-hued handbag, helped lead hundreds of LGBT Catholics into St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday. The group represents the first pilgrimage for gay and trans people to be hosted by the Vatican as part of a Jubilee Holy Year. The Vatican hosts a Jubilee Year for pilgrims about every 25 years, when Catholics come to Rome to ask for forgiveness. “This is a super-significant moment, the first LGBT jubilee in history, you can imagine how important that is for both LGBT Christians and the Church,” said Caterina, a health care worker from Padua carrying a rainbow fan and wearing a T-shirt that said “In love there is no fear.” As millions of Catholics wait to see how Pope Leo XIV will continue the legacy of his predecessor Pope Francis, who died in April, LGBT Catholics are particularly anxious about whether the new pontiff will echo the welcome extended by Francis. Catholic teaching states that same-sex relations are “intrinsically disordered,” a source of pain to LGBT Catholics. Francis promoted an inclusive stance. When asked about a gay priest, he famously replied “Who am I to judge?” and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, which triggered a conservative backlash. Pope Leo’s outlook is more uncertain. At a synod or Vatican conference in 2012, Leo gave a speech about how Western media was promoting “anti-Christian lifestyle choices” such as same-sex marriage. When he became a cardinal in 2023, he said that the Church “wants to be more “welcoming and open,” but he emphasized that doctrine had not changed. At the conclave where he was elected, cardinals expressed concerns at some of Francis’ moves to greater openness, seen as ambiguous, and even threatening by some. Still the pilgrims were full of optimism for greater acceptance. “We have been overlooked for so long. It is very good to show it is possible to be both LGBT and Catholic,” said Kaitlyn, an activist from the diocese of Westminster in London. Guillermo, an El Salvadorean who travelled from London to attend, said that after Francis died group members were worried that the pilgrimage would be cancelled. “It’s a very special moment as it’s the first time the LGBT community has been invited — that is very meaningful. We all hope Leo will carry on the inclusiveness of Francis.” It has been a case of interpreting the smoke signals. Before the procession, the pilgrims attended a mass presided over by a high-ranking prelate. That is “a clear sign of change,” said American activist Father James Martin, founder of Outreach, a church ministering to LGBTQ people. “I cannot imagine that happening before Francis or Leo. And it generates great hope.” In another suggestion of possible opening, Leo personally received Father Martin. “The message I received is that he wants to continue the legacy of Pope Francis, which is one of openness and listening,” Father Martin told POLITICO, adding that the meeting was “deeply consoling and very encouraging.” But opponents of gay and transgender rights dismissed the event’s significance. Simone Pillon, an Italian senator with the far-right League party, said that welcoming LGBT people as sinners does not mean that Church teaching will change. Pope Francis didn’t change teaching, he said, but his gestures were misinterpreted by the media. It was “a clear signal, he claimed that Pope Leo decided not to meet the group of of gay and trans pilgrims. “The Jubilee is a moment of forgiveness, so I don’t have any problem with the event; we are all sinners,” he said. “What is frankly annoying is that anyone would use the Jubilee to promote an ideology which contains nothing of Christianity. … The church has always welcomed everyone, but to be in communion with God means following the commandments, also in sexual conduct,” he said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday accused the European Union of sliding into irrelevance on the world stage, warning that the bloc must “do less, but do it better” if it wants to remain competitive. Speaking at the annual Rimini Meeting, a major event in Italian politics linked to a Catholic association, Meloni said the EU “seems increasingly condemned to geopolitical irrelevance, incapable of effectively responding to the competitiveness challenges posed by China and the United States. “Bureaucracy will not get us out of the storm, politics can,” she said. “Regulations will not make us stronger, ideas can. Ideologies will not liberate our societies, but values — when applied to the reality we live in — can. “We must know that returning to being protagonists of history and of our own destiny is not easy, it is not painless, and it is not free.” Meloni argued the bloc should refocus on core principles and national identities. “The real challenge is a Europe that does less, but does it better,” she said. “After all, ‘United in diversity’ is the motto of the European Union, and I believe it is a motto we should all truly draw inspiration from.” Her remarks echoed those of former European Central Bank President and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who told the same audience last Friday that the EU must learn to defend itself in a world increasingly shaped by war and “great-power” competition. In the same vein, Meloni also called on the bloc to take greater responsibility for its own defense, warning that the continent can no longer rely on the U.S. “After decades in which we outsourced European security to the United States — at the cost of an inevitable political dependency — we must be willing to pay the price of our freedom and our independence,” she said. “Only those who are able to defend themselves are truly free in the choices they make.” Meloni said her political tradition had long raised the issue, even when it was unpopular. “We spoke of the need for a European pillar of NATO, of equal dignity to the American one, at a time when these issues were not fashionable,” she said. “It makes me smile a little that those who now claim the need to emancipate themselves from the United States are the very same who have always opposed a policy of independence in terms of defense and security.” Turning to Ukraine, Meloni welcomed recent “openings for a negotiating path” after years in which Russia had demanded Kyiv’s capitulation, crediting U.S. President Donald Trump, “the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people,” and Europe’s unified support. The Italian leader addressed the conflict in Gaza as well, condemning both Hamas and Israel. She said Rome had supported Israel immediately after the October 7 attacks, but she criticized the scale of its military response. “We cannot remain silent in front of a nation that has gone beyond the principle of proportionality, even involving Christian communities in the region, and jeopardizing the historic perspective of two peoples, two states,” Meloni said. She also denounced the killing of journalists in Gaza earlier this week, calling it “an unacceptable attack on press freedom.”

The Vatican is facing allegations it used a “skeleton key for money laundering” by illegally manipulating bank transfers. The city state’s former top financial cop ― who was forced out in 2017 ― has claimed that its payroll agency was able to alter the names and account numbers on transactions after they were made, masking the identity of recipients and senders. The implication would be enormous because it would have made it possible for Vatican officials to wire funds to private clients without revealing who they were, possibly enabling unlimited money laundering and violating the most basic anti-fraud rules. The claims come at an awkward moment for new Pope Leo XIV as he seeks to boost the Catholic Church’s reputation after decades of rolling financial scandals and a looming budget shortfall. The Vatican denies all the allegations and people familiar with SWIFT, the organization that facilitates international bank transfers, say what the Vatican is being accused of is technically impossible. Yet, the allegations are being taken seriously because of the credibility of the people making them and because of the Vatican’s history of misconduct.   ACCUSED OF BEING A SPY What adds to the intrigue is how closely the allegations mesh with internal Vatican politics.   They come from Libero Milone, former auditor at Deloitte, a top accountancy firm, who was appointed by the late Pope Francis in 2015 to fix the Vatican’s finances after years of scandal and neglect.  Two years later, he was forced to resign after senior officials accused him of being a spy. He claims he was pushed out because he had identified financial wrongdoing connected to the city state’s former police chief and cardinal, Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was convicted of embezzlement in 2023 after misusing Vatican funds. The Vatican is facing allegations it used a “skeleton key for money laundering” by illegally manipulating bank transfers. | Giuseppe Lami/EPA Milone first mentioned the apparent existence of tools that could edit international bank account numbers (IBANs) in transfers in the international SWIFT system last month, following the collapse of a case he brought against the Vatican for wrongful dismissal. The Pillar, a Catholic website, followed up with a series of articles signaling that Milone was sitting on a pile of potentially explosive material on practices uncovered during his time at the Vatican and was considering whether to deploy it to bolster his case. Describing the IBAN editing tool as a “skeleton key for money laundering,” The Pillar said that if proven, “the Vatican would likely end up on an international financial black list of the darkest kind, frozen out of the international banking system, meaning no money could come in or out of the city state except in literal, physical cash.” NO BLACKMAIL In a press conference last week, Milone himself corroborated the allegations. However, he refused to provide additional documentation or go beyond what The Pillar journalist Ed Condon reported. “I have a piece of paper which says that they can change the transactions — they can change the name — at any time,” Milone said in response to a question by POLITICO. He also intimated that he had further damaging evidence of malpractice in the city state but again refused to say what, insisting that he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. “I’m not trying to blackmail anyone,” he told reporters. Milone said he first learned of the tool when he was asked to look into it by Cardinal George Pell, an Australian cleric appointed under the same transparency drive. Pell was forced to return to his native country in 2017 to face child abuse allegations, for which he was later cleared. He died in 2023. In a letter addressed to Milone and dated 2016, a copy of which The Pillar shared with POLITICO, Pell said he had been “alerted” to a request from APSA, the Vatican’s payroll agency, “to amend the controls in the SWIFT system,” an action he described as “potentially … illegal.” Milone’s office investigated Pell’s claims, and the auditor flagged them to senior officials including Pope Francis and Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, as well as the Vatican’s chief justice official and the Vatican’s internal watchdog, ASIF. But he received no response from the latter two, which he said had a duty to investigate — part of a broader pattern of institutional resistance to Francis’ reform effort in which the late pontiff was routinely outmaneuvered, he said. ‘COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED’ The Vatican has vehemently denied the allegations. In a statement shared with POLITICO, spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the claims were “completely unfounded” and that APSA had not served private clients in 2016, when the letter was sent.  APSA did indeed shut down its personal accounts in order to exempt itself from oversight by Council of Europe anti-money-laundering agency Moneyval in 2015, but the financial tools might have been used before then, or else used to hide transactions involving private clients processed after that date, Condon argued in a blog post. Bruni also denied any continued malpractice, pointing to audits of APSA by watchdog ASIF and PricewaterhouseCoopers between 2020 and 2024 that found “no anomalies.”  Libero Milone said he didn’t know exactly how the tools would have bypassed these restrictions, but that he saw evidence that transactions were edited. | Fabio Frustaci/EPA A person familiar with how SWIFT operates, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted to POLITICO that “it is not possible to alter the content of a payment message once it has been sent,” owing to the use of verifiable digital signatures and high-level encryption that applies also to SWIFT clients. Milone said he didn’t know exactly how the tools would have bypassed these restrictions, but that he saw evidence that transactions were edited. GOD’S BANKER Ahead of the May conclave that elected Leo, cardinals complained about a budget deficit that is said to have widened substantially in recent years, thanks to a downturn in donations that accelerated under Francis. The new pontiff was chosen in part because he was seen as somebody who could restore credibility among powerful donors, particularly in the U.S., insiders told POLITICO earlier this year. Recent developments have already restored some confidence. After bumper earnings reported earlier this year by the Institute of the Works of Religion (IOR), the Vatican’s long-troubled investment vehicle, APSA recently recorded €62.2 million in profit for 2024, up from €45.9 million. Milone’s allegations would undermine that progress, and resurface unhappy memories of financial scandals past that date back to the days of Pope Paul XI and John Paul II. In the 1980s and ’90s, Italian magistrates investigated allegations that the IOR had been used to launder Cosa Nostra profits to bankroll anti-communist movements in Latin America and Eastern Europe.  The investigations came after Vatican-connected Milanese banker Roberto Calvi, dubbed “God’s banker,” was found hanging under London’s Blackfriars bridge in 1982. Calvi was alleged to have aided the scheme in concert with an array of international interests spanning not only the IOR, but also far-right political and business figures, Italian Freemasonry and U.S. intelligence services.  The Vatican never acknowledged wrongdoing but did admit “moral involvement” for the collapse of Calvi’s bank, Banco Ambrosiano. More recently, in 2023, Cardinal Becciu, a once-powerful cardinal in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, was convicted after being found to have siphoned Vatican funds to a Sardinian charity connected to his family. Becciu was also convicted for his role in a botched London real estate deal that cost the Vatican over €100 million.

Belgium’s King Philippe said Europe “must show stronger leadership” on the crisis in Gaza, adding that “the current situation has gone on far too long” and “is a disgrace to humanity.” Belgium’s head of state made the comments in a speech on Sunday ahead of the country’s July 21 national holiday. He said Belgium supports a call by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ for “an immediate end to this unbearable crisis.” At least 73 people were killed on Sunday while attempting to obtain aid across Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said, scores of them at the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north of the territory. More than 150 people were reportedly wounded. That followed the deaths of at least 32 people on Saturday as witnesses said Israeli troops shot at Palestinians seeking food from distribution outlets run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The group is backed by the U.S. and Israel and has led humanitarian efforts in Gaza since May, but according to the United Nations human rights office, 674 people have been killed near its distribution sites as of July 13. Pope Leo XIV added his voice to the outcry on Sunday, saying after a prayer ceremony that “I once again call for an immediate end to the barbarity of this war.” The previous Thursday, Israeli shelling hit the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three and prompting the pope to call for “the prohibition of collective punishment [and] the indiscriminate use of force.” The weekend violence in Gaza did not draw a public response from the EU’s top brass, however. On the previous Tuesday, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels had declined to sanction Israel over its conduct in the war despite a human rights situation in Gaza described by the EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas as “catastrophic.” “We don’t have a ceasefire, and that’s why it is so much harder to provide that aid,” Kallas said after the July 15 Foreign Affairs Council. “But we really need to work for that to help the people because we don’t know how far the ceasefire really is [from being agreed].”

WARSAW — One-time Polish political wunderkind Szymon Hołownia is emerging as a weak link who could threaten Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist pro-EU coalition. Tusk has been trying to give his coalition some fresh momentum after the nationalist Karol Nawrocki won a tightly contested presidential election on June 1, and is planning a cabinet reshuffle next week. Tusk’s big problem, however, is that the incoming right-wing president — backed by the Law and Justice party (PiS) — will be able to veto his key reforms, putting huge strain on the coalition. This is where Hołownia, now parliament speaker, is proving a problem for Tusk. His Polska 2050 party has a crucial 31 seats that help Tusk keep his majority, but he has been accused of flirting with PiS. Hołownia admitted to meeting top PiS officials earlier this month, including Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, for unspecified late-night talks in an apartment belonging to Adam Bielan, a PiS MEP. This triggered intense speculation about his motives, but Hołownia denied claims PiS was offering to back him as a new prime minister in a government with PiS. “I am one of the few politicians in Poland who — I emphasize — regularly meets with representatives of both deeply divided camps,” Hołownia said on X after news of his meeting with PiS became public. “I firmly believe that — especially in times like these — politicians from different sides should talk to one another, or we’ll end up tearing each other apart. I consider this normal, not an exception,” Hołownia said. Despite his insistence he wasn’t plotting with PiS, the late hour of the meeting and the location in a private apartment of a PiS official mean the controversy has stuck and Hołownia’s party is now slumping in the polls. Polska 2050 came in at just 2.8 percent in a poll by United Surveys for Wirtualna Polska, a news website, published Wednesday. That is well below the 5 percent threshold a party needs to win seats in the parliament. Before turning to politics, Hołownia was a media figure, known for co-hosting Poland’s version of the Got Talent series and for his work in Catholic media. He launched a 2020 presidential campaign as a centrist outsider on a pro-European, socially progressive and economically moderate platform. He performed respectably in the 2020 election, gaining 14 percent of the vote and enough clout to start his own party. Szymon Hołownia was elected speaker of the parliament in November 2023. | Marcin Obara/EPA This year, he fared much worse in the presidential contest, winning less than 5 percent of the vote. That has weakened him ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, as he trailed not just the far right’s Sławomir Mentzen but also extremist Grzegorz Braun, who is now facing a criminal investigation into alleged Holocaust denial. In the 2023 general election, Hołownia’s Polska 2050 entered a centrist coalition with the agrarian PSL, forming the so-called Third Way group that contributed to the opposition bloc that unseated the PiS government. Hołownia was elected speaker of the parliament in November 2023. Polska 2050 and PSL have subsequently parted ways. Given that Hołownia is expected to hand over his post as speaker in November to a figure picked by fellow coalition party the New Left, the risk is that Polska 2050 will now be sidelined. If a new election were held now, polls show the coalition would lose its majority to PiS if the latter goes for cooperation with the far right.

PARIS — A report into child abuse across France unveiled Wednesday found that French Prime Minister François Bayrou “failed to act” to stop abuse at a private school in the 1990s A report into child abuse across France unveiled Wednesday found that Bayrou, who was education minister at the time, “failed to act” to stop “physical and sexual violence against the students” at a private school near his hometown of Pau. The monthslong parliamentary inquiry investigated violence at schools in general, but the most eagerly anticipated findings concerned the allegations of abuse at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, which some of Bayrou’s children attended. While the allegations first surfaced about three decades ago, the case came into the spotlight last year, when prosecutors announced they would investigate dozens of new accusations stemming from a book written by a former student. The report’s authors alleged Bayrou did not do enough to prevent “physical and sexual violence against the students.” Bayrou’s own daughter said earlier this year that she had suffered abuse at a sister school and had not informed her father. The current prime minister and former education minister initially claimed to have been completely unaware of the allegations. He later admitted to learning about them through press reports, maintaining he was unaware of their full extent. However, his defense suffered a blow after testimony from an investigator and a judge involved in the case alleged that Bayrou had been aware of the details of the allegations. Appearing before the investigative panel in May, Bayrou decried the panel’s line of questioning as politically motivated and insisted he had “never hidden anything.” Bayrou’s office did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment following the report’s publication Wednesday. The report includes gruesome accounts of violence and degrading punishments inflicted against students. It concludes that, for decades, “Bétharram was the setting for an onslaught of violence that cannot be reduced to isolated incidents.” The scandal has dogged the prime minister since early in his tenure, dragging his polling ratings to historic lows. “When people think of Bayrou, they don’t think about his actions as prime minister. They think about Bétharram,” Fréderic Dabi, the head of the polling institute Ifop, said last month. An Ifop survey published last month found that 80 percent of French voters surveyed last month said they were unhappy with Bayrou’s performance — a figure the pollster described as a record. The inquiry’s co-chairs, hard-left lawmaker Paul Vannier and centrist MP Violette Spillebout — a member of Bayrou’s own coalition — heard a total of 135 people during their probe. They found that French schools “operate on a model that belongs to the past,” which overemphasizes “learning to submit to authority” and notes that the risk of violence is “accentuated” in Catholic schools, where there is “a tendency to manage matters internally.”