Giorgia Meloni Takes Over As Italy’s First Woman PM
Newslooks- (AP)
In a ceremony in Rome, she held 90 minutes of private talks with outgoing premier Mario Draghi before he symbolically handed over to Meloni a small bell used in cabinet debates.
Giorgia Meloni, whose political party with neo-fascist roots secured the most votes in Italy’s national election last month, was sworn in Saturday as the country’s first far-right premier since the end of World War II. She is also the first woman to serve as premier.
Meloni, 45, recited the oath of office before President Sergio Mattarella, who formally asked her to form a government.
Her Brothers of Italy party, which she co-founded in 2012, will rule in coalition with the right-wing League of Matteo Salvini and the conservative Forza Italia headed by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose parties had lost popularity with voters in recent years.
Meloni signed a pledge to be faithful to Italy’s post-war republic, and Mattarella counter-signed it. As head of state, the president serves as guarantor of the Italian Constitution, drafted in the years immediately after the end of World War II and the demise of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The 24 ministers in Meloni’s government also were sworn into office in a sumptuous room of the Quirinal Palace.
Meloni made no public comments in her first hours in office. She is expected to lay out her priorities when she pitches for support in Parliament ahead of confidence votes required of new governments next week.
The votes could indicate any cracks in the three-party coalition if any of Berlusconi or Salvini’s lawmakers, perhaps disgruntled by not getting ministries they wanted for their parties, don’t rally behind her.
Meloni’s government replaces one led by Mario Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief who was appointed by Mattarella in 2021 to lead a pandemic national unity coalition. Meloni refused to join that coalition, insisting voters must decide the makeup of their governments.
During her campaign for the Sept. 25 election, Meloni insisted that national interests would prevail over European Union policies should there be conflict.
