The *Two* Whisky Happy Hour: The View from Europe, with Edoardo Raffiotta

This isn’t our normal 3WHH; John isn’t here, just Steve and Lucretia. So maybe a 2WHH. The occasion for today’s extra episode—since we moved up our usual weekly offering on account of the latest weekly Trump indictment, is to take note of two related items.First, did you know that Italy’s new and very popular prime minister Giorgia Meloni recently visited Washington and had a brief meeting with President Biden? I missed this too, as the meeting took place behind closed doors, probably to cover up the fact that Biden either fell asleep or sniffed PM Meloni’s blonde hair, and there was apparently no press availability or public photo op. Of course, Biden called Meloni a fascist when she was first elected, so I expect there was no enthusiasm for noting her visit.The second item is an article in National Review ("The Italian Option") recently on Meloni, where Dalibor Rohac argues that Meloni is a better model for nationalist conservatives than Hungary’s Viktor Orban, because Meloni’s positions on various matters are more congenial to Americans. Maybe so, though I note Rohac’s article neglects to mention that Meloni is fond of Orban, having met with him a number of times. And Rohac is a defender of the European Union, which makes us suspicious right there.Leaving aside the whole Hungary question for another day, this seems like an occasion to roll out at last a conversation Lucretia and Steve had recently with one of our favorite Italians thinkers—and part-time opera singer—Edoardo Raffiotta. Edoardo is professor of law at the University of Milan, where we first made his acquaintance last year at a conference. He specializes in European constitutional law, and especially the problems of emergency powers (hence is occasional interest in Carl Schmitt). He is also actively involved in legal issues pertaining to cyber-security and the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence, which of course are specialities of Lucretia. We wanted to hear first hand from Edoardo about Meloni and other topics—including opera. Stick around after we finish with Edoardo, because Lucretia and I will come back with a “postgame” show of sorts where we offer some additional reflections about the wider scene—and make a small news announcement.And we manage to sneak in a few bars of Edoardo's favoite Puccini opera, La Rondine, at the end.