The First Steps of Giorgia Meloni’s Government

I refer you to the story of the Italian policewoman attacked and raped by a jihadist invader to see what one of her first steps must be. Stop the invasion!

From The European Conservative

aBy Hélène de Lauzun

The course of action of the new Italian leader—the hope of the conservative Right at home and abroad—will be particularly subtle to establish.

Giorgia Meloni wastes no time in getting on with the business of governing Italy. After her official appointment as President of the Council by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, Meloni proceeded on Friday, October 21st, to the appointment of her government. The occasion has attracted the scrutiny of leaders all over Europe hoping to determine what the candidate whom some continue to describe as ‘far Right’ has in mind. She was then sworn in on Saturday, the 22nd, in Rome. 

The 45-year-old president of the Fratelli d’Italia party, who won the elections on September 25th, is the first woman to hold this position in Italy.

Of the total government, nine positions are held by members of Meloni’s party, Fratelli d’Italia. The rest are shared between her two allies, Forza Italia and the League, and so-called professionals with ‘technocrat’ profiles. Her team includes 6 women out of 24 ministers.

At first sight, Giorgia Meloni’s government is a balanced one, designed to reassure Italy’s partners, with the choice of moderate figures. Several personalities testify to the veracity of this observation. The ministry of foreign affairs is given to Antonio Trajani, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s party. He was president of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2019, and for her purposes, his position is a way of silencing criticism of Meloni’s rumoured Euro-scepticism. As a representative of the Forza Italia party, he is also given the title of Deputy Prime Minister. Although he had been a collaborator with Silvio Berlusconi in the past, he disassociated himself from the latter’s provocative statements about Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. A few days ago, EPP president Manfred Weber renewed his support and confidence in him. 

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League, also received the title of Deputy Prime Minister, a position he had already held in 2018 when he formed a government with the Cinque Stelle Movement. While he may have wanted to return to the post of interior minister where he had made a name for himself, it is in fact his former chief of staff, Matteo Piantedosi, who was retained. At the same time, by obtaining the post of minister of infrastructure, he has a seemingly thankless but essential responsibility where he can continue his work of setting down the local roots of his party.

The economy ministry is entrusted to Giancarlo Giorgetti, belonging to the moderate faction of the League. He was already in the previous government led by Mario Draghi. The economy is a crucial issue for the new team, as inflation has taken hold in Italy, which, like other European countries, risks a recession next year. Rome’s manoeuvrability is also limited by a debt ratio of 150% of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest in the euro zone after Greece. Meloni is no longer talking about leaving the euro; she reassures Brussels while explaining that she wants to defend her country’s interests with the European institutions. In the coming weeks, she will follow in Mario Draghi’s footsteps on the economic front. 

Once the composition of her government was made public, Giorgia Meloni took the trouble to reply on her Twitter account to all the messages of congratulations received from her European counterparts, emphasising on numerous occasions her commitment on the sides of Ukraine and her desire to maintain a high level of international cooperation. 

Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, and Roberta Metsola welcomed Meloni and called for “constructive cooperation.” Berlin, Madrid, and Paris were initially silent. Hungary sent warm messages to the new Council President, both from President Katalin Novák and from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who hailed “a great day for the European Right.” 

Her political programme is sometimes summed up as a skilful synthesis of technocracy and sovereignty—a way to underline the challenge she has to face between her convictions and her range of action. As such, the strategy has merit, and she can seduce beyond the European conservative Right. Former Socialist French Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Védrine paid tribute to Meloni by being grateful to her for moving the lines. “If Giorgia Meloni manages to annoy the Europeans on migration flows, it will be a collective progress,” he declared on the channel LCI.

The course of action of the new Italian leader—the hope of the conservative Right at home and abroad—will require a deft and subtle hand. Italy’s economic fragility puts immense pressure on her shoulders. It is likely that she will first seek to reassure and play the card of respectability and responsibility—even if this means being accused by some of a relative lack of political audacity. This is to some extent the challenge that Marine Le Pen is also facing today in France with the Rassemblement National and its group of 89 deputies in the National Assembly, even though the stakes and situations are different. 

Giorgia Meloni, who is under the unsympathetic control of both the French government and the European authorities on societal issues, claimed that she had no intention of touching Italy’s current legislation on abortion. Nevertheless, it is certainly on family and birth policy that she will have the opportunity to make her personal mark.