As Inflation Stalks Europe, Leaders Shudder

In Italy, Ms. Meloni has had to assure skeptics that she would keep Mr. Draghi’s hard line against Russia despite having in her coalition Matteo Salvini, a populist leader who used to wear shirts with Mr. Putin’s face on them, and Silvio Berlusconi, who this week was caught on tape privately blaming Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for forcing Russia to invade.

Lorenzo Codogno, a former director general of the Italian treasury who runs a consulting firm that closely follows Italian politics, said he thought Ms. Meloni would maintain her strong support of Ukraine but would probably appeal to Europe to help lower taxes on core food items to help low-income Italians.

“You need to find some kind of agreement,” he said, “at the European level.”

At the Roman market, not all were ready to abandon their commitment to Ukraine despite the costs.

Anna Andolfi, 77, who loaded some bread and pastries into her canvas cart, said that she had noticed that many of her friends, even those more well off than she, had increasingly voiced their impatience with Italy’s support for Ukraine, given the high prices for food and heat and Ukraine’s seeming “a world away.” But she said that a young Ukrainian woman helped her out at home and that the girl fretted constantly for her mother in Lviv.

“I don’t care how much the prices go up,” she said. “I’ll turn the heat off and wear two ski suits if I have to so that we can keep supporting Ukraine.”

Reporting was contributed by Andrew Higgins in Riga, Latvia, Constant Méheut in Paris, Mark Landler and Stephen Castle in London, Erika Solomon and Christopher F. Schuetze in Berlin, Elisabetta Povoledo in Rome and Gaia Pianigiani in Siena, Italy.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/world/europe/inflation-prices-britain-ukraine-russia.html