James Crisp

When Giorgia Meloni told G7 leaders on Monday that she had given up smoking, their reactions ranged from delight to surprise.

At last year’s summit, the Italian prime minister had declared that she would probably kill someone if she had to quit tobacco.

But she broke the news that she had successfully kicked the habit in Évian-les-Bains, eastern France.

Ms Meloni is heard on video saying she had to “take some coffee” as fellow leaders chatted while they waited for Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelensky to join them.

“This morning? To wake up?” asked Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, asked: “And a cigarette?”

“No, I stopped,” said Ms Meloni.

“You stopped it. Bravo,” said Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, a heavy smoker who has forged a close friendship with Ms Meloni, a political soulmate.

Mrs Von der Leyen, a medical doctor by training, declared: “Good.”

As leaders demanded to know when the diminutive Roman had quit, a less obviously supportive Mr Merz asked: “Last night?

“A month ago,” replied 49-year-old Ms Meloni.

Sir Keir Starmer then asked Antonio Costa, the European Council president, when he had given up the habit. He replied he had quit 21 years ago and had “never gone back”.

The leaders’ surprise was understandable, given Ms Meloni’s enthusiasm for smoking.

Ms Meloni was challenged over her smoking habit at the Gaza summit in Egypt by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, who had vowed to make Turkey smoke-free.

“You look great, but I have to make you stop smoking,” he told Ms Meloni, to laughter from Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

“It’s impossible,” the French president said during the meeting on the sidelines of the summit in October last year.

“I know, I know,” Ms Meloni said. “I don’t want to kill somebody.”

Ms Meloni had revealed in a book that she had begun smoking again after quitting 13 years previously.

She also said that her tobacco habit had helped her bond with some foreign leaders, including Kaïs Saïed, the president of Tunisia.

Meanwhile, Ms Meloni and Mr Trump sought to bury the hatchet after their dispute over the US president’s criticism of the Pope for being soft on crime.

The two leaders spoke on Monday evening in what sources called a “clarification” meeting in the spirit of “Western unity”.

Ms Meloni is the closest EU leader to Mr Trump and was the only one to attend his inauguration.

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However, after she refused to join his war on Iran, which is hugely unpopular in Italy, he told an Italian newspaper: “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”

Ms Meloni said his comments about the Pope were “unacceptable”.

Sources told the Italian media there would be chances for more conversations between the two leaders at the summit.

In one moment captured on camera in the summit room, Ms Meloni told Mr Trump: “We have always been friends.”

In stark contrast, she appeared stony-faced as she strode off after meeting Mr Macron on Monday at the summit. The two leaders have clashed regularly during their terms in office.

Emmanuel et Brigitte Macron ont accueilli la première ministre italienne, Giorgia Meloni, avant le dîner de travail sur les grands enjeux internationaux au soir du premier jour du G7 à Évian. pic.twitter.com/S471XRJe6u

— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) June 15, 2026

The unguarded chat was not the only “hot mic” moment of the G7 summit. As Mr Macron greeted Mr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, with a hug, he was heard to ask whether he had a bilateral meeting set up with Mr Trump.

It was an example of the way in which European leaders are game-planning how to manage the unpredictable president over the war in Ukraine.