Italy’s Far-Right Leader Meloni Forms New Government since the conclusion of World War II thanks to Giorgia Meloni, who also became the first woman chosen to lead the nation as prime minister.
Meloni and her government would be sworn in on Saturday, according to a presidential palace official who made the announcement on Friday. In Italy’s recent national election, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neo-fascist antecedents, received the most votes.
A few hours prior to the announcement of the creation of the new government, career politician Meloni, 45, informed reporters that she and her colleagues had unanimously requested President Sergio Mattarella grant them the authority to rule.
The Brothers of Italy completed a remarkable rise by becoming prime minister. The party was co-founded by Meloni in December 2012, and in its early years, the right viewed it as a fringe movement.
Before departing the presidential mansion at Quirinal, Meloni remained silent in public. She met Mattarella earlier in the day alongside her two primaries, occasionally problematic right-wing supporters, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini.
Meloni mentioned urgent issues “at both national and international level”, which is likely a reference to the skyrocketing energy costs that are impacting consumers and businesses as well as the conflict in Ukraine, where European Union members are at odds over strategy due to concerns about gas supplies during the impending winter.
‘Arrogant’
Vladimir Putin has long been admired by Berlusconi and Salvini. Meloni firmly supports Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion. Coalition rule could be difficult due to these discrepancies.
Three-time prime minister Berlusconi had been miffed by Meloni’s party’s electoral success. In an election on September 25 that witnessed a record low turnout, the Brothers of Italy won with 26 percent, while Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the anti-immigrant League of Salvini each received barely 8 percent.
Meloni’s party received just under 4% of the vote in the most recent parliamentary election, which was held in 2018.
Even if Meloni’s forces are the largest in the parliament, she still needs the support of her two allies to control a majority in the body.
Recently, Berlusconi mocked her in writing, calling her “arrogant,” presumably after Meloni declined to appoint a politician who is one of the media mogul’s closest advisors to the position of minister.
In a meeting with his lawmakers earlier this week, he expressed support for Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine.
He also boasted that Putin brought him bottles of vodka for his 86th birthday last month, and he sent the Russian president bottles of wine while the two exchanged nicely worded notes in that discussion, which was filmed and leaked to the Italian news agency LaPresse.
Meloni underlined that anyone joining her cabinet must be firmly in sync with the West in opposing Putin’s war in response to Berlusconi’s remarks, which were also disparaging of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Meloni declared that she would take the chance even if it meant that her administration couldn’t be established.
“God, Country, and Family”
Italy’s Far-Right Leader Meloni Forms New Government, Additionally, Salvini has occasionally questioned the necessity of strict Western sanctions against Russia. The continuation of the measures has been questioned publicly by a fellow politician from Salvini’s League party who was just elected president of the lower Chamber of Deputies.
Salvini, Berlusconi, and the populist leader of the 5-Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, declined to support the outgoing prime minister Mario Draghi’s administration in a vote of confidence, which led to the breakdown of his national pandemic unity coalition in July. As a result, Mattarella decided to dissolve the legislature and call for elections about six months early.
Draghi was in Brussels for the third day of a European Council session when final preparations to create the new government was being made, deliberating how to handle rising energy prices.
Mattarella met with opposition leaders on Thursday to discuss their worries that Meloni, who ran on a platform of “God, homeland, family,” would work to restrict access to abortion and same-sex civil unions.
According to Alan Friedman, a journalist based in Lugano, Switzerland, “the easiest way for people around the world to understand what is going on in Italy is to think about what would happen if Marine Le Pen became president of France, or what would happen if the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland led Germany.”
“This is the first time an Italian government has been held by a party with fascist roots. Many of Meloni’s supporters still harbor fond memories of the despot Mussolini.
Unapologetic in her intensity, Meloni has developed a strong personal brand that appealed to disgruntled voters in the elections held last month, becoming her Italy’s first female prime minister.
Meloni, who frequently rails against the European Union, widespread immigration, and “LGBT lobbies,” sees herself as a champion of traditional Christian values in Italy and rejects what she terms the politically correct rhetoric of the left.
