The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, received this Thursday at the Chigi Palace, headquarters of the Italian executiveto the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize 2025, Maria Corina Machadoin a meeting that reinforces international support for the democratic transition in Venezuela.
The meeting, which was not included in the previous official agenda, takes place within the framework of an intense European tour by Machado through several capitals of the continent. The Venezuelan leader had already recently met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Rob Jetten, in The Hague, and plans to continue her agenda in Madrid.
According to preliminary reports, Meloni and Machado exchanged views on the political transition process in Venezuela after the departure of Nicolás Maduro. Italian Government sources indicated that the Italian Prime Minister ratified her support for a peaceful and democratic transition in the South American country, coinciding with positions previously expressed in telephone conversations between both leaders.
Before the meeting at the Chigi Palace, Machado met with representatives of the Venezuelan community residing in Rome, where he has received expressions of support and hope for the future of the country.
Giorgia Meloni, one of the strongest voices in Europe against Chavismo in recent years, has maintained fluid contact with the Venezuelan opposition. In January 2026, after the fall of Maduro, both had a telephone conversation in which they agreed that “a new page of hope” was opening for Venezuela and its democratic principles and the rule of law.
This Thursday’s meeting is interpreted as a gesture of consolidation of Italian — and more broadly European — support for efforts to stabilize the transition in Venezuela, at a time when the international community is closely monitoring progress towards free elections and the institutional reconstruction of the country.
