In many ways her stance is brave: governments must, of course, be willing to act in ways that are unpopular. Politicians who are too sensitive to the vicissitudes of public opinion may become paralysed by difficult choices. 

Meloni’s evident belief in a personal responsibility to impose her will on an increasingly sceptical public is shared by other European governments. When Slovakia announced a donation of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine last week, the nation’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger asserted that the government is “on the right side of history”. In light of polling suggesting that around half of Slovaks want Russia to win the war, his statement sounded almost like a reprimand. 

The situation is similar in other countries, such as Germany and the Czech Republic, where large anti-war movements have sprung up that mostly attract disenchanted working-class voters. A German petition signed by 750,000 people, calling for negotiations instead of more military aid, attracted condemnation at home and abroad, as did a recent attempt by Czech protestors to tear down a massive Ukrainian flag from the front of Prague’s famous National Museum. 

Western support for Ukraine may still be strong, but polling shows that it is falling. Leaders will therefore need to be cognisant of these shifts and not take an openly oppositional stance towards large portions of their own electorate. Statements from Meloni and others, to the effect that military aid will be maintained against the wishes of voters simply because it is the “right” thing to do, carry the necessary implication that many voters possess the “wrong” values — and that given the choice, the public would pursue a course of action which history would not look back upon favourably.

This is a serious accusation, and one which, more than anything else, is responsible for Europe’s bitter polarisation on the war in Ukraine. If politicians push too hard, then a popular backlash is inevitable.