Giorgia Meloni officially became Italy’s first woman prime minister at the helm of the country’s most right-wing government since World War II.
Four weeks after her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party won general elections, Meloni joined outgoing premier Mario Draghi for a handover ceremony at Chigi Palace, the prime minister’s seat in Rome.
The 45-year-old leader recited the ritual oath of office before Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday after her party Brothers of Italy won more than 25 percent of the vote in snap elections in late September.
She declared her intention to get “straight to work”.
Her government, the 12th this century, replaces a national unity administration led by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. It faces a string of daunting challenges, notably a looming recession, rising energy bills and how to present a united front over the Ukraine war.
She has often raised eyebrows among bloc’s members by aligning with far-right Spanish party Vox and Hungary’s Orban – recently accused by the EU of failing to respect the rule of law.
But she very much diluted that tone as the prospect of entering government neared and Italy’s chronically ill economy receives millions of euros from the EU.
The country is also going through biting inflation and an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine – elements that leave Meloni with little room for radical change, observers say.
Giorgia Meloni knows her political fate is tied to the economy,” said Tommaso Grossi, political analyst at the European Policy Center, noting she will not be fighting with Brussels over budget overshoots or fiscal policies.
Meloni has a daughter, Ginevra, with her partner Andrea Giambruno, a journalist who works for Silvio Berlusconi‘s Mediaset TV channel.
She has said that she is a Catholic Christian and has used her religious identity in part to help build her national brand. In a 2019 speech to a rally in Rome, she said: “I am Giorgia. I’m a woman, I’m a mother, I’m Italian, I’m Christian.”
In September 2022, she reportedly continued to embrace the old Italian fascist slogan “God, fatherland and family”. She has said she resents being linked to Italy’s fascist past.