Her party has overwhelming odds of overcoming the fractured left
"Sunken" Meloni, the most likely candidate for the position of Prime Minister in Italy
Meloni basically wants to tackle Italy's economic problems.
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Meloni with League leader Matteo Salvini.
Reuters
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The rise of the obscure, blunt Italian politician, the leader of the Brotherhood of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, is astonishing by all accounts. Within weeks, if all goes as expected, and she is lucky in the elections, she will become the first Italian female political leader to lead the country, belonging to the Italian Brotherhood, It was until recently on the sidelines, ignored for years by the male-dominated political class in Italy.
Meloni is unmarried, utters the phrases with a heavy Roman accent, is always candid, points to the sky, and criticizes "the ideology of laziness".
Meloni also reflects a standard for far-right politicians in Western Europe, and has been able to gain a level of political power that has remained beyond the reach of her counterparts in Germany and France, and her political star is rising even after the forces that fanned the flames of nationalism on the continent in response to immigration to Europe diminished.
Meloni's profile remains distinguished, and so does her path to political success.
In the midst of war in Europe, it has notably avoided the pitfalls of nationalist figures elsewhere, is a staunch supporter of NATO, and shows no affinity with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
She vowed not to disturb the stability of Italy and the Atlantic alliances.
She says the country will not take some authoritarian turns.
But what will definitely change is the tone of Italy.
Meloni is highly critical of the globalization of the left.
It highlights crimes committed by immigrants.
"Everything we defend is under attack," she says, "Christian values and gender norms."
"In a political world where everyone says one thing and does another, our party's value system is very clear," Meloni said in an interview with The Washington Post. "And whether you like it or not, we mislead no one."
And if Meloni, 45, wins the election, she will end up with a tough job: running a country in economic decline for a generation. Hungary and Poland, in the fight against diversity, agitate against Brussels.
Her opponents argue that her views could be skewed to the extreme.
They cite earlier observations about her, such as a speech she gave in 2017, in which she said that large-scale illegal immigration to Italy was "planned and deliberate", carried out by unnamed powerful forces to import low-paid labor and expel Italians from their jobs, adding that this was "called ethnic substitution." Echoing the far-right conspiracy theory "The Great Replacement".
On the other hand, her allies say Meloni has the kind of serious plans her predecessors lacked, and that she mainly wants to tackle Italy's economic problems.
Her rhetoric is theatrical, but deals mostly with ideas about boosting investment and reducing welfare.
The newly released party statute contains 25 proposals, everything from expanding high-speed rail to starting university research.
Voters who favor Meloni tend to cite her honesty and tenacity as reasons for their support.
At the moment, the Meloni (Brothers of Italy) party is the most popular in the country, with nearly a quarter of voters supporting it.
He has a coalition deal with other right-wing parties, which gives him overwhelming prospects for overcoming the fractured and tottering left.
The right-wing bloc says the post of prime minister should go to the leader of the party that gets the most votes.
However, after the general elections on September 25, the president, Sergio Mattarella, has the final say on who will get the mandate.
Meloni admits in her interview with the "Washington Post" that Italy faces extraordinary challenges.
She pointed to the high cost of energy and raw materials, and the uncertainty about whether the epidemic will return again, and also acknowledges Italy's huge public debt, which always keeps the country several steps away from the crisis.
She says there are reasons for 11 governments to punish Italy in the past 20 years.
She also says, "I cannot say that in the face of such a responsibility, my hand will not tremble," reasoning, "because we have found ourselves ruling Italy through what may be one of the most complex situations ever."
Meloni's rise is deeply indebted to the waning star of another far-right politician, Matteo Salvini.
For many years, Italians viewed Salvini as the political engine of Italy, organizing raucous rallies, banning migrant boats from docking on Italian shores, and repeating former US President Donald Trump's pledge to put "Italians first."
From his position as interior minister in 2018 and 2019, Salvini has dominated national discourse, and his League has gained so much popularity that he thought he could jump into the prime minister's seat.
But his plan backfired.
When he dismantled his coalition government to force new elections, other parties cooperated to bring him down.
He fell into opposition, as he sought new ways to stand out and contradicted himself with changing situations.
In the end, Salvini brought his party back into government, lending support to former European Central Bank president and current prime minister, Mario Draghi.
"Salvini won a lottery ticket, then lost it to Meloni," says Giovanni Orsina, director of the public school at Luis Guido Carli University in Rome.
Even those who disagree with Meloni's policy admit that she strategized wisely.
As Salvini faltered, Meloni established ties with like-minded parties in Europe, including Spain's Vox and Poland's Law and Justice Party, and made trips to address Republicans in the United States.
For Italians, she has framed the role of her perennial opposition party as a matter of principle: The Brothers of Italy will only join the government if they are elected, rather than entering with a majority through back deals.
Meanwhile, she tried to show that her party would remain a constructive player if it believed in a cause.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Meloni mentioned Draghi's support in dealing with the fallout from the Ukraine war amid a split in the prime minister's coalition.
“When he needed help, we gave it to him,” Meloni says, especially when it comes to her positions in Europe, as she has moderated significantly more than other Western European nationalists who earlier this year ran for power, such as the French politician , Marine Le Pen.
And while Le Pen had ideas that would lead to confrontations with Brussels, such as prioritizing national law over EU law, Meloni did not.
The problem now for Meloni is that she needs Salvini to enter the government, whose party is part of the right-wing coalition.
Salvini - who once wore a Putin shirt while touring Red Square - suggests that the West should rethink sanctions against Russia, arguing that the measures are causing pain in Europe and have failed to change the Kremlin's calculus.
Analysts say there is indeed reason to question the durability of any Meloni-led coalition, given the potential to compete with Salvini.
In theory, Salvini could complicate Meloni's path even before she takes the top job, by suggesting party leaders step back and choose an alternative representative.
Meloni says she learned from an early age the importance of having enemies.
Her childhood in the Roman suburbs was difficult.
Abandoned by her father, she sailed to the Canary Islands.
She was brought up by her mother, who is from the right.
She wrote romance novels, and accidentally burned down the family's house while playing with candles.
She was bullied because of her weight gain.
In her autobiography, she tells the story of her being described as "fat" when trying to play volleyball, so she went on a diet to lose weight, Meloni wrote: "After years, I'm grateful for these retards."
Some Italians worry that it will further polarize the country and remove some of the restrictions of society.
Edith Brooke, a Holocaust survivor and poet living in Rome who became friends with Pope Francis, noted Meloni's shortened way of presenting herself as a woman, mother, Italian, and Christian.
“What does that mean?” Brooke says. “This means that she is neither Muslim nor Jewish, and all of this brings us back to the idea that Europe is Christian, and that non-Christians are a threat.”
• She wrote romance novels, and accidentally burned down the family's house while playing with candles. She was bullied because of her weight gain. In her autobiography, she tells the story of her being described as "fat" when trying to play volleyball, so she followed a diet to lose weight. "Years later, I'm grateful for these retards," Meloni wrote.
• It has gained a level of political power that has remained beyond the reach of its counterparts in Germany and France, and its political star is rising even as the forces that fanned the flames of nationalism on the continent in response to immigration to Europe have waned.
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