The Italian prime minister joked that if she cut out tobacco she might kill someone.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s anti-tobacco crusade has a new target: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
On the sidelines of a peace summit in Egypt aimed at ending the war in Gaza, Erdoğan promised Meloni he would find a way to convince her to stop smoking.
“You look great. But I have to make you stop smoking,” Erdoğan told Meloni, according to footage published by Italian daily Il Foglio and other media.
But French President Emmanuel Macron, who was next to them, was quick to dash Erdoğan’s hopes. “It’s impossible!” he said laughing.
“I know, I know,” Meloni said, adding a warning that quitting smoking might make her less sociable. “I don’t want to kill somebody.”
In a book based on a series of interviews, Meloni confessed she had started smoking again after quitting for 13 years. But she also acknowledged that smoking had helped her bond with other politicians, including Tunisian President Kais Saied.
Sofiane Zaizoune contributed to this report