Meloni using ‘anxiety’ phone case at Cop28
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Giorgia Meloni is using a mobile-phone cover that offers supportive statements to sufferers of anxiety in a possible indication of the mental health of the Italian prime minister.
Attending the Cop28 summit in the United Arab Emirates, Ms Meloni was chatting to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, when she leaned in close and took a selfie of the pair.
A photographer at the climate summit captured the moment and, in doing so, the back of Ms Meloni’s mobile cover which showed a series of quotations and cartoons dotted around the words “Affirmations for Anxiety”.
The 20 bite-sized affirmations give tips on how to best relieve stress and improve your mood, as well as providing a reminder of the importance of mental health.
“My anxiety doesn’t define me,” reads one. “It’s okay for me to say no for my mental health,” reads another.
Under a picture of a birthday cake, number 18 says “I give myself permission to take a break”.
The case sells for £9.40 on the website Manifesting Minnie.
“Affirmations can help strengthen self-worth by boosting both your positive opinion of yourself and your confidence in your ability to achieve your goals,” the item description reads.
A spokesman for Ms Meloni, 46, told The Telegraph that the cover was attached to the prime minister’s phone by her daughter, 7, Ginevra.
In October she split from Givenra’s father, her long-time partner, Andrea Giambruno, after he was recorded propositioning female colleagues on his talk show.
While Ms Meloni leads the hard-Right Brothers of Italy party, she has leaned more to the centre since taking power in 2022 and cultivated a softer image in the media.
At the Cop summit she was also pictured laughing with Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, with whom she shares a cordial relationship.
Throughout her time as prime minister, Ms Meloni has sought to distance her party from any links to Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Her government has pledged to improve Italy’s mental health services but remains constrained by a lack of finances.
Ms Meloni made permanent Covid-19 subsidies to support people with mental health disorders, but critics say her 5 million euros budget (£4.3m) is well beneath the 25 million euros provided by her predecessor.
Only 3 per cent of Italy’s health budget goes towards mental health services, compared to around 10 per cent in other high-income European countries.
While Ms Meloni remains Italy’s most popular political leader, with the Brothers of Italy party polling at around 30 per cent, she has struggled to deliver on promises including a crack down on illegal migration.
Some 152,000 migrants have disembarked in Italy so far this year, up sharply from 94,000 in the same period in 2022, official data show, an embarrassing increase for a government that has pledged to curb arrivals from northern Africa.
The economy too has become a source of discontent among Italians, stagnating in the third quarter of 2023 and the outlook for next year similarly bleak.
Social unrest in the country is rising, with trade unions calling frequent strikes.
Ms Meloni drew sympathy in October following the reports of her partner’s behaviour.
The Italian prime minister, who was in a relationship with Mr Giambruno for 10 years, has presented herself as a defender of the traditional family.
In late October, Mr Giambruno was caught on camera making lewd and sexist remarks to female colleagues on his talk TV show Diario del Giorno.
In one incident he was filmed pacing up and down the set, making suggestive remarks to a female journalist and repeatedly touching his crotch, saying: “Can I touch my balls while I talk to you?”
“Let’s have a threesome, even a foursome” he said at one point in a separate incident.
Ms Meloni responded swiftly, saying her almost 10-year relationship “ends here”.
On her mobile phone case, one of the affirmations reads: “I will smile, breathe & go.”
