Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s new prime minister: Disaster awaits

• Giorgia Meloni sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister.
• She leads a coalition of far-right and center-right parties, including her own Brothers of Italy.
• New government is a coalition led by two other right-wing leaders – Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, was sworn in on Saturday after winning the election on a promise to block migrant ships and support for traditional “family values” and anti-LGBTQ themes.

Meloni was sworn in by Italian President Sergio Mattarella during a ceremony at Rome’s Quirinale Palace.

She leads an alliance of far-right and center-right parties, including her own Brothers of Italy, and is poised to form Italy’s most right-wing government in decades.

Meloni’s victory in parliamentary elections last month shows that the allure of nationalism remains strong in Italy – but her pledge to take the country on a hard-right turn has many wondering what will happen next.

The new government is a coalition led by two other right-wing leaders. One example is Matteo Salvini, a former interior minister who became a hard-right darling in 2018 after transforming his League party, which was once a northern secessionist party, into a nationalist force.

Meloni’s 24 ministers, six of whom are women, were sworn in with her on Saturday.

The other is Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister from the center-right who is best known for his “bunga bunga” sex scandals with young women. Both men have previously publicly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, raising concerns about the coalition’s approach to Russia.

Just this week, days before government formation consultations were to begin, a secretly recorded audio was circulated in which Berlusconi appeared to blame Kyiv for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and boasted of reestablishing relations with the Russian leader.

Giorgia Meloni takes the oath of office as Italy’s first female prime minister. She leads a coalition of far-right and center-right parties, including her own Brothers of Italy. On Saturday, her 24 ministers, six of whom were women, were sworn in alongside her.

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