By any account, Giorgia Meloni’s rise is astonishing. In a matter of weeks, if all goes as expected, she stands to become Italy’s first female leader.
From his perch as interior minister in 2018 and 2019, Salvini dominated the national discourse, and his League party had grown so popular that he thought he could. But his plan backfired. When he broke apart his government coalition to force new elections, other parties joined hands to freeze him out. He tumbled into the opposition. He lunged for new ways to stand out and contradicted himself with shifting positions.
To Italians, she framed her party’s perpetual opposition role as a matter of principle: The Brothers of Italy would only join a government if elected, as opposed to entering a majority through backroom deals. Meantime, she tried to show that her party would still be constructive players if it believed in a cause.
“This kind of sanitization and Europeanization has gone a lot further in Meloni’s case than in Le Pen’s,” Scazzieri said. Analysts say there’s already reason to wonder about the durability of any Meloni-led coalition, given the potential for competition and rivalry with Salvini. In theory, Salvini could complicate Meloni’s trajectory even before she gets the top job, by suggesting the party leaders stand back and pick an alternative representative.