Italy’s first woman PM has a battle on her hands on the economic front; her cabinet choices reassure US, NATO

Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister

Italy’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose fascist links have been a cause for worry to Europe, may prioritize stabilizing the economy more than reviving Benito Mussolini’s fascist movement.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is widely seen in Europe as an heir to Fascist dictator Mussolini’s paramilitary movement that dominated Italian politics from the 1920s to 1946 during its darkest hours.

Her party won the parliamentary election in September in coalition with two other right-wing parties, Matteo Salvini's League, and TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, and was invited to form the government on Saturday.

Her first act as prime minister in both choosing her cabinet and in clarifying her government’s position on the Ukraine war have reassured Brussels and Washington.

She put the League’s Giancarlo Giorgetti, considered to be pro-Europe and a moderate, in charge of the economy ministry, and named former president of the European Parliament and Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani as the foreign minister.

Meloni’s close adviser Guido Crosetto, a defence industry expert and former head of the Federation of Italian Aerospace Companies, has been chosen as the defence minister.

Reassurance to NATO

Despite her coalition partners, Berlusconi and Salvini’s pro-Russian sympathies, she has assured European leaders that her government will not break ranks with NATO to go against Ukraine in the ongoing war.

Her victory has been hailed by right-wing parties across Europe and also made the Republican leadership in the United States happy.

Political analysts have in past months tried to parse her statements to determine if she was fascist, a neo-fascist, or a post-fascist.

Most European leaders, alarmed by her victory, had expected her to join the ranks of hard right leaders like Hungary’s Victor Orban, Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski and France’s Marine Le Pen to strengthen the anti-European (is a word missing here, perhaps Union) axis.

Timing of victory

She won at a time when the European Union is trying to abolish the unanimity vote to project a strong voice on foreign affairs, defence and energy policy.

The unanimity allows any of the 27 members of the EU to scuttle a policy by opposing it.

Many of them believe Meloni shares the view of other right-wing populists to oppose European integration.

There are questions too, on how she handles the economy.

Her predecessor Mario Draghi agreed to a rigorous system of monitoring and auditing to receive 190 billion euros from the EU’s NextGeneration scheme over five years. Four of those years are left.

Whether Melony will accept the stringent conditions from Brussels before each tranche of payment is released remains a big question for observers.

Enthusiasm, disillusionment

As a self-declared sovereignist, she might oppose the EU’s scrutiny. Or she might be pragmatic to accept the reality and agree to Brussels’s conditions for the stability and growth of the economy.

Observers point out that Meloni is entering office not on a groundswell of enthusiasm but on a wave of disillusionment.

Her victory largely reflects the instability of the last decade.

Berlusconi was the last leader who won a clear majority In Italy’s general election to bring the Right to victory in 2008.

Since 2011, the country has had seven governments under six prime ministers.

Meloni’s victory promises at least medium-term stability becuse the right-wing coalition now will have a considerable majority in both houses of parliament.

Her coalition polled only 26 percent of the 64 percent votes cast. The left parties—the Five Star Movement (15%) and the centre-left Democrats (19%) -- had together polled more votes. But they lost because they refused to join the force.

Meloni’s attraction is largely because she is young at 45 years and by not joining Draghi’s government remained untainted by his policies.

Observers say the voter apathy that pushed turnout to just 64 percent was a reflection of disillusionment with the old political guard.

The Donald Trump comparison

Meloni’s signature issues, “Italy First” and attitude towards illegal immigration and hostility towards the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community or abortion, are reminiscent of the campaign of Donald Trump.

Even so, her opposition to foreign ownership of flagship national companies, such as Alitalia, are widely shared by the left parties.
Despite her fascist links, Meloni is seen as an astute politician who would like to play the long game. Having won a hard victory in the patriarchal Italian society to become the country’s first woman prime minister, she is unlikely to squander her chance.

Few expect her to pick up a fight with the European Commission when the country is facing a tough winter of high energy prices and scarce supply of gas.

It is argued that as long as she could reassure the United States and the EU leaders on foreign and economic policy, she is likely to be left alone to build her power base and push her agenda at home.

Multiple crises

Neither Washington nor Brussels would be eager to ostracise her during security, energy and cost-of-living crisis by coming to the defence of migrants or women’s rights.

As Italy’s first woman prime minister, Meloni may try to avoid the fate of the UK’s Liz Truss. But that would also depend largely on how her coalition partners choose their battle.