Giorgia Meloni has two unbeatable political weapons, which she flaunted with ease during her inauguration speech: her gender and her biography. Two naturally acquired instruments whose personal value now lies in the fact that he will use them. The new prime minister builds a character that exploits this idea of the self-made woman in a man’s world like politics. Even in a very masculine party like the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, to which he belonged in his youth. And especially in a macho country like Italy. But beyond that, of course, she shows her humble origins, that of the “underdog”, as she herself proclaimed in that first speech. Born into a humble family whose father soon left home, she grew up with her mother and sister in a working-class neighborhood. An unbeatable story against the opposition but also perfect for consolidating his lead on the Italian right wing against his coalition partners. In short, Meloni would like to be Margaret Thatcher. Though she looks more like Marine Le Pen at the moment.
The new prime minister, 45, has launched her career by combining a sustained and relatively dovish economic agenda with nods to her more conservative constituency, which demanded to hear the music of law and order in the opening bars of her term. Meloni endorsed a controversial decree against rave parties in his first Council of Ministers and has shown signs he is pursuing the closed ports policy against NGOs rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, which his partner and League leader Matteo Salvini has already started . when he was Home Secretary. However, he also wanted to send messages of calm to the European Union by choosing Brussels as the first international destination on his agenda or working on an upcoming trip to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The idea, they emphasize in those around them, is to expand the political battlefield and present themselves as leaders of a hegemonic right. Ideologically very conservative, but institutionally reliable.
Public opinion, including in a sector of the female left, received her with curiosity and could not hold back praise. Although she challenges this sector with decisions such as the designation “President of the Council”. Political scientist and professor at LUISS University Giovanni Orsina admits that there is a certain honeymoon between the prime minister and an ideological territory that should be her opposition. “It’s an important addition but there are going to be tougher times and we’ll have to see how he can capitalize on that biographical element. But underdog leadership is a great game scheme. Margaret Thatcher used it perfectly: the shopkeeper’s daughter, a woman, outside the male circles of the business elite… This can undoubtedly be her story. She has always said that she would like to be a bit like a British Prime Minister. But he will be able to exploit it for a while, especially in an anti-political climate,” he affirmed.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Photo: Roberto Maldonado
Unlike Thatcher, Meloni didn’t find her father to be a role model (he left her as a child, went to the Canary Islands and was eventually arrested and convicted of drug trafficking in Mallorca). But he also grew up in a humble family in a working-class neighborhood like Garbatella in Rome, overcoming all sorts of adversity. Also personally, as he tells in his interesting biography (I am Giorgia. Le mie radice, le mie idee; I am Giorgia: my roots, my ideas, Rizzoli 2021). “He uses it and effectively gets the opposition in incredible trouble. The Italian left is losing popular credentials. And the Democratic Party has not cared about the advancement of women. And Meloni used it. But let’s see how it develops,” emphasizes Orsina.
Meloni’s movements in Europe will be key in defining the project. His right-hand man in this area is the Minister for European Affairs and the Recovery Plan, Raffaele Fitto. A moderate man with an in-depth knowledge of the Community institutions to which Meloni owes his entire strategy in Brussels. The party is now associated with the Conservative-Reformist group, of which Meloni himself is the leader. But he knows he must forge alliances with the European People’s Party, as he did in the election of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “[El líder de Forza Italia, Silvio] Berlusconi and Salvini are not having their best time right now. And in Brussels, despite the old quarrels, she is the most reliable,” emphasize sources from her party, Brothers of Italy.
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The numbers speak of significant growth for Meloni since the September 25 elections. Antonio Noto, polls expert and President of Noto Polls, points out that Meloni is already up 2.5% in the first month. “It is natural that whoever wins tends to go up. There is an emotional response from voters. It’s not that he’s voting from other parties, it’s that part of the electorate who didn’t vote today would do so for the Brethren of Italy. That is the emotional consensus. But you have to see the budget, the energy question… so it’s measured at the end of the year. There it will go from emotional to rational support,” he explains. However, growth carries risks. And the consolidation of this hegemony is now the first goal. “He’s trying to convince his constituency, which is new and therefore not very loyal. Many of them had never voted for her and could leave at any time. The goal is to consolidate it,” Noto points out.
However, Meloni has two problems consolidating his project. The first is to finally bury their post-fascist past. It does not skimp on declarations for this. But some of the appointments, like that of Senate President “Ignazio Benito La Russa, political son of fascism,” are not helping. Second, he promised a government of leaders. And to date, all sorts of profiles have entered his executive branch, responding to outstanding favors from his partners or to incomprehensible elections, such as Galeazzo Bignami, the new deputy minister of transport and infrastructure (Salvini’s right-hand man), who was photographed disguised as an officer HH The lack of a ruling class will be one of the main obstacles and a key difference to the Tory leader when she came to power in 1979. Until then, Thatcher will still be a horizon.
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