Rome, Italy- Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, was formally sworn in as the country’s first Female Prime Minister on Saturday.
Meloni’s right-wing coalition was victorious in the September 25 General elections after her party won 26 percent of the vote, compared with 8 percent for her coalition partner Forza Italia headed by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and 9 percent for the other coalition partner, the League party led by Matteo Salvini.
The 45-year-old received congratulatory messages from world leaders after being sworn in on Saturday, including the US president, Joe Biden, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who said she had a good call.
This is the first time the Brothers of Italy party that Meloni co-founded in 2012 has been in government. The 24 Cabinet Ministers she announced post her being sworn in, including six women, and five of the Ministers are regarded as technocrats.
“We must be united, there are emergencies the country is facing. We have to work together,” said Meloni.
The new government is the most far-right in Italy since World War II and takes power at a time of soaring inflation and an energy crisis linked to Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
According to Coldiretti, the largest association for agricultural assistance in Italy, the agricultural sector, which represents 1.96 percent of Italy’s GDP, is facing a shortage of everything from fertilizers, to diesel, to electricity and glass, causing prices to rise rapidly with a devastating impact on farm budgets
“I have and always will be clear, I intend to lead a government with a foreign policy that is clear and unequivocal. Italy is fully part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance. Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone will not be able to be part of the government, at the cost of not being a government. With us governing, Italy will never be the weak link of the West,” said Meloni.
Meloni grew up in the working-class Roman neighborhood of Garbatella, a historically left-wing part of southern Rome that was built during Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship. She got her political start in the movement Youth Front, a political organization with fascist roots.
However, she has sought in recent times to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. Her policy proposals have also evolved over time, including walking back some of her more anti-EU ideas.
