For years, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni enjoyed leverage as the right-wing leader who could bridge the gap between Europe and President Donald Trump.

多年来，意大利总理梅洛尼作为一位能够弥合欧洲与特朗普之间分歧的右翼领导人，享有一种政治筹码。

This week, though, she seems to have decided that Trump is a bridge too far.

但本周，她似乎认定，特朗普成了她跨不过去的坎。

After suffering major political setbacks because of her association with Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy and seen as the cause of rising gas prices, Meloni seized on an opportunity to extricate herself from a relationship that had grown domestically and internationally poisonous. After Trump launched a broadside Monday against Pope Leo XIV, Meloni rallied to the American pontiff’s defense, saying, “I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable.”

由于与特朗普的关系让她在政治上遭遇重大挫折——特朗普在意大利极不受欢迎，并被视为油价上涨的罪魁祸首——梅洛尼抓住机会，试图摆脱这段在国内外都日益“有毒”的关系。周一，在特朗普猛烈抨击教宗良十四世后，梅洛尼迅速为这位美籍教宗辩护，称“我认为特朗普总统对教宗的言论是不可接受的”。

Trump, clearly jilted, lashed out at Meloni, saying in an interview with an Italian newspaper Tuesday that he hadn’t talked to her “in a long time,” was vexed by her lack of participation in the war in Iran and was “shocked by her,” adding, “I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.” He responded to her “unacceptable” criticism by snapping, “She’s the one who’s unacceptable.” On Wednesday, he added in a television interview that with Italy, “we do not have the same relationship.”

特朗普显然觉得遭到了抛弃，于是对梅洛尼发起攻击。他在周二接受一家意大利报纸采访时说，自己已经“很久”没和她说过话了，对她未参与伊朗战争感到恼火，并且“对她感到震惊”，还说：“我原以为她很勇敢，但我错了。”针对梅洛尼“不可接受”的批评，他厉声回击道：“她才是不可接受的。”周三，他在一次电视采访中补充说，与意大利“我们不再有以前那种关系了”。

德黑兰一块表现霍尔木兹海峡形势的广告牌，摄于本周。伊朗战争加剧了特朗普与梅洛尼之间的紧张关系。

The spat seemed to be the end of, or at least a low point for, perhaps Trump’s most special relationship in Europe.

这场口水战似乎意味着特朗普在欧洲或许最特殊的一段关系走到了尽头，或者至少是跌入了低谷。

It is also another remarkable moment in the career of Meloni, who has over decades shifted from teenage neofascist activist to hard-right party leader — before finally emerging as a pragmatic conservative and the first female prime minister of Italy.

这也是梅洛尼政治生涯中又一个引人注目的时刻：数十年来，她从一名青少年新法西斯主义活动人士，转变为强硬右翼政党领导人，最终成为一位务实的保守派，并当选为意大利首位女总理。

When Trump returned to power last year, many in the European establishment feared that he would pull her to the far-right extremes. Instead, analysts suggest, Trump may have actually pushed her deeper into the Europe mainstream.

去年特朗普重新掌权时，欧洲建制派中的许多人都担心他会把梅洛尼拉到极右翼的极端立场上去。然而，分析人士认为，特朗普实际上可能反而把她推向了欧洲主流。

“In the relationship with Trump, she originally thought he could be an asset, and maybe he was, because she could appear as the person that could mediate between the rest of Europe and Trump,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Florence. “But gradually it has become a liability. I think she took advantage of what he said about the pope to make a firm statement and take distance. She couldn’t do otherwise.”

佛罗伦萨大学政治学荣休教授罗伯托·达利蒙特表示：“在与特朗普的关系中，她最初认为他可以成为一种资产，而且某种程度上确实如此，因为她可以把自己塑造成一个在欧洲其他国家与特朗普之间的调解者。但这种关系逐渐变成了一种负担。我认为她利用了他对教宗的言论，借机明确表态并拉开距离。她别无选择。”

At first, Meloni’s connection to Trump had the makings of a beautiful friendship.

最初，梅洛尼与特朗普的关系似乎颇有成为一段佳话的潜力。

2018年，梅洛尼邀请特朗普的前首席顾问班农作为她政治会议的贵宾。

In 2018, when she was still a marginal figure looking for oxygen in Italy’s crowded populist space, Meloni invited Trump’s former top adviser, Steve Bannon, to be the guest of honor at her political conference, named after a hero in “The NeverEnding Story.” The next year, she proudly called herself “the only Italian” invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. She spoke on the same day as Trump, and from her seat in the audience gushed about his remarks on social media even as he delivered them.

2018年，当她仍是意大利拥挤的民粹主义政治空间中一个边缘人物、急需关注时，梅洛尼邀请特朗普的前首席顾问史蒂夫·班农作为贵宾，出席她以《大魔域》中的一个英雄式人物命名的政治会议。她自豪地称自己是受邀在华盛顿保守派政治行动会议上发言的“唯一意大利人”。她与特朗普同一天发言，并且就在他演讲的同时，在台下通过社交媒体对他的讲话大加赞赏。

In 2022, she said in an interview with The New York Times: “Trump did some very good things when he was president. For example, in foreign policy, we had no problems. There were no wars.”

2022年，她在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示：“特朗普在担任总统期间做了一些非常好的事情。比如在外交政策方面，我们没有遇到问题，没有战争。”

Years later, when they were both at the height of their power, they seemed to be hitting it off.

数年后，当两人都处于权力巅峰时，他们看上去很合得来。

“You don’t mind being called beautiful, right?” Trump said to Meloni at a summit in Egypt last October. “You are.”

去年10月在埃及举行的一次峰会上，特朗普对梅洛尼说：“你不介意被称为美女吧？你就是。”

Despite the public displays of affection, throughout his second term, Trump has increasingly put pressure on Meloni, along with other European allies, to increase Italy’s military spending and to accept unfavorable trade terms.

尽管有这些公开的热络互动，但在特朗普的第二任期内，他不断向梅洛尼以及其他欧洲盟友施压，要求意大利增加军费开支，并接受对其不利的贸易条件。

She showed signs of resistance. Last April, as Trump threatened to raise tariffs, she said, “I think the choice of the United States is a wrong choice,” even as she cautioned against retaliatory tariffs from Europe.

梅洛尼也表现出一些反抗迹象。去年4月，在特朗普威胁提高关税之际，她说，“我认为美国的选择是错误的”，但同时也提醒欧洲不要采取报复性关税。

Then things started getting tense. In January, as Trump increasingly began to float the idea of taking Greenland, she said, “I don’t believe in the idea of the U.S. launching military action on Greenland, which I would not agree with.” Days later, when Trump walked back his threats, she spoke as someone who understood him, saying she was “not surprised, to be honest.”

随后，事情开始变得紧张起来。今年1月，当特朗普不断提出接管格陵兰岛的想法时，她说：“我不相信美国会对格陵兰岛发动军事行动，我也不会同意这么做。”几天后，当特朗普收回这些威胁时，她以一种了解他的人的口气说：“说实话，我并不感到意外。”

But when Trump decided to attack Iran, he did not give Meloni a heads-up. To her humiliation, her defense minister was vacationing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at the time and had to be evacuated via military jet.

但当特朗普决定对伊朗发动攻击时，并未提前告知梅洛尼。令她难堪的是，她的国防部长当时正在迪拜度假，不得不乘坐军用飞机撤离。

The war also led to a spike in gas and electricity prices in Italy. Meloni, a populist with a sharp sense of pocketbook issues, understood the political danger, especially as Italians prepared to vote in a referendum on a crucial judicial change that she supported.

这场战争还导致意大利的汽油和电价飙升。作为一名对民生问题高度敏感的民粹主义政治人物，梅洛尼清楚其中的政治风险，尤其是在意大利即将就她所支持的一项关键司法改革举行全民公投之际。

As poll after poll showed that Italy did not support the war and did not like Trump, Meloni started speaking out.

随着一项又一项民调显示意大利民众既不支持这场战争，也不喜欢特朗普，梅洛尼开始公开表态。

“I am concerned, obviously, because it would be stupid to believe that what happens even far from our borders does not involve us,” she said March 2, adding, “The United States and Israel decided to attack without the involvement of their European partners.”

“我当然感到担忧，因为如果认为发生在远离我们国界的事情与我们无关，那就太愚蠢了，”她在3月2日表示，还说：“美国和以色列是在没有欧洲伙伴参与的情况下决定发动攻击的。”

Days later, she made it clear that “we are not at war and we do not want to go to war.” She dispatched Guido Crosetto, the defense minister who had been marooned in Dubai, to be even more forceful, saying the attack by the United States and Israel “certainly happened outside the rules of international law.” She then added in a speech to parliament that because the United States had problems communicating, she couldn’t necessarily endorse the U.S. assessment that Iranian intransigence had thwarted negotiations over a deal.

几天后，她明确表示“我们没有处于战争状态，也不希望陷入战争”。她派出一度被困在迪拜的国防部长圭多·克罗塞托作出更为强硬的表态，称美国和以色列的攻击“显然发生在国际法规则之外”。随后，她在议会演讲中补充说，由于美方在沟通上存在问题，她未必认可美方关于伊朗的顽固态度阻碍了谈判达成协议的说法。

For all her effort to distance herself from Trump’s war, she badly lost the referendum on the judiciary anyway, after the vote became perceived as a plebiscite on her own popularity. In an effort to settle scores with those she believed had done her wrong, she fired a minister and aides whom she held responsible for the defeat.

尽管她竭力与特朗普的战争保持距离，但在司法公投中仍然遭遇惨败——这场投票被视为对其个人支持度的一次公投。为清算她认为导致失败的责任人，她解雇了一名部长及数名助手。

But analysts said that a rupture with Trump was the breakup that would matter most to Italian voters. And Trump’s attack on the pope gave her an opening.

但分析人士表示，与特朗普的决裂才是意大利选民最为看重的。而特朗普对教宗的攻击给了她一个机会。

Now, experts say, Meloni will have to decide if she wants to go it alone, or seek closer alliances in the European establishment that she rose to power bashing.

如今，专家表示，梅洛尼必须决定是选择单打独斗，还是与她上台时曾猛烈抨击的欧洲建制派寻求更紧密的联盟。