Italy’s Prime Minister Goes Mainstream

A few days ago, Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was campaigning for votes as a scrappy underdog, presenting herself as “that bitch Meloni.”

Her rise owes much to her ability to please her party’s far-right base on identity issues such as Muslim immigration and same-sex parents, while simultaneously reassuring center-right voters that she is a safe pair of hands, including in managing Italy’s fragile finances.

Her hybrid of right-wing culture war and establishment-friendly foreign and economic policies could become a model for other far-right parties in Europe that are looking to gain power and broader acceptance.

She has followed broadly similar policies to Berlusconi, centered on trimming income taxes and welfare benefits, without pushing ambitious economic overhauls to boost Italy’s chronically low growth. Ironically, Meloni’s support remains solid even though voters think she has performed poorly on her signature issue: controlling immigration.

She promised to stop migrants from crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa, but has found there is no easy way to do it.