On Friday, September 4, her 1,413th day at Palazzo Chigi, Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s longest consecutively serving prime minister since 1946.
asserted
Meloni → become → 1946
Given the habits of Italian politics, this is a remarkable achievement in its own right—and all the more surprising given how Meloni came to power.
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Meloni → give → power
Her vision for Italy rested on disruptive, unworkable proposals that could have jeopardized Italy’s continued membership in the EU and the Euro.
uncertain
that → rest → EU
Everything suggested that the government she formed in October 2022 would prove as fragile and short-lived as so many before it.
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she → suggest → it
Instead, Meloni is celebrating her record with pomp and circumstance, and, with the parliament’s approval of a new electoral law nicknamed the Melonellum, her hold on power could extend even further.
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hold → celebrate → power
Two years ago, when Meloni voted against Ursula von der Leyen’s reelection as president of the European Commission, the question was whether her carefully crafted image of a pragmatic leader would yield to that of a stubborn Euroskeptic doing the far right’s bidding for a lesser EU.
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image → vote → EU
Meloni has remade neither Europe nor Italy.
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Meloni → remake → Europe
Instead, she has just lasted.
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she → last → ?
Several factors explain this outcome.
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factors → explain → outcome
First, due to a mix of political ineptitude, muddled thinking, and personal rivalries, Italy’s center-left political parties went into the 2022 election split three ways: the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico), the Greens and Left Alliance, and +Europa on one side; the “Third Pole” alliance between centrists led by Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda on the other; while the Five Star Movement ran on its own.
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Movement → go → own
Meloni won 26 percent of the vote for Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), and just around 44 percent of the right-wing coalition.
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Meloni → win → coalition
The fragmentation of the center-left, however, allowed her to make the most of the electoral law’s rules and maximize her success in terms of parliamentary seats.
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her → allow → seats
The numbers behind the electoral results cannot be overstated, especially given the longevity of the Meloni government.
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numbers → overstate → government
Italy’s governments rise and fall depending on whether the legislature gives or withdraws its confidence in the government.
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legislature → rise → government
On the one hand, the electoral performance of Fratelli d’Italia, and of the right more generally, had been so sweeping that even imagining a different parliamentary configuration remained out of the question.
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imagining → imagine → question
On the other hand, over the last four years the center-left has not managed to present itself as a credible governing alternative.
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left → manage → alternative
Fragmented, quarrelsome, and lacking a shared platform, the left wing parties have not offered a solid prospect at the national level, despite some important victories at the local level.
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parties → lack → level
Meloni has also been skillful at keeping disagreements within her coalition from boiling over, granting Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani small victories here and there, and mediating whenever tensions between them ran too high.
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tensions → keep → them
She has also benefitted from the fact that neither Salvini nor Tajani could afford to challenge her leadership due to the need to manage their respective parties’ growing troubles and weaknesses.
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Salvini → benefit → troubles
Nor could they attempt risky moves that would have toppled Meloni’s government, as the parliamentary arithmetic did not allow it.
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arithmetic → attempt → it
Equally relevant, Meloni abandoned her long-held conviction that leaving the EU and the Euro would be beneficial for Italy.
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leaving → abandon → Italy
The idea of leaving the Euro was disavowed almost immediately after Meloni became prime minister, while her previous belligerent pronouncements against the EU were replaced by a subtle effort to build a working relationship with Ursula von der Leyen.
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pronouncements → leave → Leyen
Her hostility to austerity and compliance with EU budget constraints has also quietly dissipated, meaning that the very principles Meloni had bitterly and relentlessly opposed for years have become the cornerstone of her government’s economic policy.
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Meloni → dissipate → policy
As a result, Italy’s fiscal credibility has improved as budget restraint brought the deficit to roughly 3.1 percent.
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restraint → improve → percent
This is in spite of the public debt-to-GDP ratio remaining among the highest in the EU, projected at 138.5% to 138.9% by the end of 2026.
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This → remain → 2026
Likewise, Meloni’s openly stated sympathies for Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria and Vladimir Putin’s Russia gave way to a gregarious cooperation with the United States, even during the Biden administration.
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sympathies → state → administration
An earnest review of the performance of the Meloni government suggests that its historical longevity is a matter of survival rather than accomplishment.
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longevity → suggest → survival
Or, in the words of Tito Boeri: “This government has primarily sought to survive by doing as little as possible.”
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government → seek → little
Growth and investment is where the Meloni government has nothing to show.
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government → have → nothing
ISTAT data show that between 2023 and 2026, industrial production declined and, according to the OECD and the International Monetary Fund, Italy’s growth, forecasted at 0.9 percent for 2026, remains one of the weakest in the EU.
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growth → show → EU
Further, between 2021 and 2026, Italy received the lion’s share of the EU Recovery and Resilience funds, yet the Meloni government did not succeed in leveraging them to stimulate long-term growth beyond limited success in controlling Italy’s debt.
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government → receive → debt
Opposition leaders have highlighted Meloni’s decision to settle for small reforms rather than tackling structural economic issues.
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leaders → highlight → issues
The government’s ambitious institutional reform agenda fared no better, either having stalled or failed.
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agenda → fare → ?
The premierato, Meloni’s flagship reform for the direct election of the prime minister, was abandoned after its first approval in the Senate.
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premierato → abandon → Senate
While Meloni did not offer any explanation for this choice, the opposition has suggested that seeking approval of the parliament’s lower chamber would have been an expensive political gamble.
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seeking → offer → chamber
The Autonomia Differenziata reform, which would have allowed regions to negotiate greater administrative and legislative powers from the central government in policy areas such as infrastructure, environment, health, and education, was also dropped after the Constitutional Court largely gutted the original proposal.
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Court → allow → proposal
Finally, 53 percent of voters rejected the reforms separating the career tracks for judges and prosecutors in last March’s confirmatory referendum.
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percent → reject → referendum
Notably, Meloni accepted these defeats and stated that the government would keep working on the issues.
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government → accept → issues
In doing so, she avoided repeating her predecessor Matteo Renzi’s mistake.
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she → do → mistake
In 2016, he staked his premiership on a constitutional referendum for his own institutional reforms.
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he → stake → reforms
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
