Meloni, born in Rome on January 15, 1977, has travelled a long and politically complicated road to the top
At the age of 15, Giorgia Meloni entered politics by joining a party founded by supporters of Benito Mussolini. More than three decades later, she has reached a position that few could have imagined for that teenage activist: Meloni is now Italy’s longest continuously serving prime minister in the country’s post-war history.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Italian counterpart on the milestone, calling her a “friend” and saying that her record reflected the “confidence and trust” placed in her by the Italian people.
Meloni, born in Rome on January 15, 1977, has travelled a long and politically complicated road to the top. She rose through Italy’s post-fascist right, helped establish the Brothers of Italy, turned a marginal political force into the country’s leading right-wing party and became Italy’s first woman PM in 2022.
Her tenure has also challenged some of the expectations surrounding her political rise. A leader of a party with roots in the post-fascist tradition, Meloni has adopted a more pragmatic approach towards the European Union and emerged as one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in Europe.
From Garbatella to the political right
Meloni grew up in Rome’s Garbatella region. Her father had left the family when she was young. Her mother raised her, and politics became a major part of her life during her teenage years.
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At 15, Meloni joined the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, a right-wing party established by former supporters of Mussolini. She became involved in its youth movement and moved steadily through its ranks.
The MSI later transformed into the National Alliance, allowing a younger generation of politicians, including Meloni, to enter mainstream conservative politics. She became president of the party’s youth organisation in 2004.
Her early political career progressed quickly. In 1998, she was elected to Rome’s provincial government. Eight years later, she entered the national parliament.
Her breakthrough came in 2008, when Silvio Berlusconi returned to power. Meloni was appointed minister for youth in his government. At 31, she became the youngest minister in Italy’s post-war history.
But the political establishment that had given Meloni her first major national platform was soon shaken by economic problems and political scandals. Berlusconi’s government collapsed in 2011, while Italy faced a serious financial crisis.
Building the Brothers of Italy
When technocrat Mario Monti became prime minister and introduced an austerity programme, Meloni opposed the measures. She soon began looking for a new political vehicle.
In 2012, she joined National Alliance veterans Ignazio La Russa and Guido Crosetto to establish the Brothers of Italy.
The party’s early politics were strongly nationalist and opposed to mass immigration and what it saw as excessive European Union interference in Italian affairs. But it struggled to gain a major foothold.
In the 2013 general election, it performed poorly. Meloni nevertheless took over as party leader in 2014 and began the long process of building the Brothers of Italy into a national political force.
A failed attempt to become Rome’s mayor in 2016 did little to halt her rise. Two years later, the Brothers of Italy won only around 4 per cent of the vote in the general election, but its support continued to grow.
Meloni also developed a distinctive political identity. At a rally in Rome in 2019, she delivered the line that would become closely associated with her public image: “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian.”
The message captured her emphasis on national identity, traditional family values and opposition to excessive liberalism.
The decision to stay in opposition
Meloni’s biggest political gamble came after the collapse of Giuseppe Conte’s government in 2021.
When former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi became PM and assembled a broad coalition involving almost all of Italy’s major political parties, Meloni took her party in the opposite direction.
The Brothers of Italy was the only major party to remain outside Draghi’s government.
That decision proved crucial.
While other parties shared responsibility for Draghi’s government, Meloni was able to present herself as the only major politician who had consistently remained in opposition. When Draghi’s coalition eventually collapsed in July 2022, she was ideally placed to benefit from the resulting election.
At the same time, Meloni worked to soften the image of her party. She urged members to avoid extremist statements and prohibited the use of the Roman salute, a gesture closely associated with fascism.
She also tried to reassure international partners that an Italy led by her would remain committed to its alliances.
From election victory to Palazzo Chigi
The September 2022 election transformed Meloni from opposition leader into PM-in-waiting.
The Brothers of Italy won about 26 per cent of the vote, making it the largest party in the election. Together with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s League, Meloni’s right-wing alliance secured a comfortable parliamentary majority.
On October 22, 2022, Meloni formally became prime minister.
She made history in another way: she became Italy’s first woman to hold the office.
Her government was also the country’s first led by a party rooted in the post-fascist political tradition since the end of World War II.
A pragmatic approach to Europe and Ukraine
One of the most notable features of Meloni’s premiership has been the gap between expectations and her governing record.
The leader of a party that was once strongly Euroskeptic has developed a working relationship with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Her government has also accepted compromises necessary to secure European funding for Italy’s economic and domestic programmes.
On Ukraine, Meloni has taken a particularly firm position in support of Kyiv following Russia’s invasion. That stance has distinguished her from some other figures on Europe’s right who have expressed sympathy towards Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On immigration, she has stayed closer to her traditional political identity. Her government has pushed for stronger action against illegal migration across the Mediterranean and expanded cooperation with North African countries to reduce the number of migrants reaching Italy.
The ambiguity that defines Meloni
Meloni’s politics remain difficult to fit neatly into a single category.
Her party continues to emphasise “God, Fatherland and Family”, a slogan that critics associate with Italy’s fascist past. Meloni, however, points out that the phrase was also used by Giuseppe Mazzini, a central figure in Italy’s 19th-century unification.
That dual meaning reflects a broader feature of her political style.
On economic and foreign policy, Meloni has often taken a pragmatic approach, seeking to work with Brussels and maintaining Italy’s support for Ukraine. On immigration, national identity and family policy, she has retained a much harder-right position.
She has also strongly opposed what she calls “gender ideology” and has backed policies centred on the traditional family, including restrictions affecting same-sex couples seeking to adopt children.
This combination has allowed Meloni to appeal to conservative voters while presenting herself internationally as a pragmatic leader.
Italy’s longest-serving postwar PM
Meloni’s latest milestone is therefore more than a measure of time in office. It marks the culmination of a political journey that began when she was a teenager on the fringes of Italy’s post-fascist right.
She has survived the instability that has long characterised Italian politics and outlasted a succession of governments and political leaders.