In taking her brand of hard-right nationalism to the hearth of EU and Western institutions, Meloni must navigate treacherous political waters in which she must seem both moderate and radical. But she won’t be able to remain under the radar for long.
ROME – When Giorgia Meloni delivered her maiden speech in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies on October 25, you didn’t know what to believe – the language or the body language, the message or the choice of words. Meloni, a former Benito Mussolini admirer and teenage neo-fascist activist, whose Brothers of Italy party leads the new government coalition, now reigns over the decaying political class of an aging country. How does Italy’s first-ever female prime minister (and, at 45, its second youngest), raised by a single mother in a rough Rome neighborhood, intend to govern a country famous for its low social mobility and the European Union’s second-lowest female employment rate?
ROME – When Giorgia Meloni delivered her maiden speech in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies on October 25, you didn’t know what to believe – the language or the body language, the message or the choice of words. Meloni, a former Benito Mussolini admirer and teenage neo-fascist activist, whose Brothers of Italy party leads the new government coalition, now reigns over the decaying political class of an aging country. How does Italy’s first-ever female prime minister (and, at 45, its second youngest), raised by a single mother in a rough Rome neighborhood, intend to govern a country famous for its low social mobility and the European Union’s second-lowest female employment rate?