Analysis
Giorgia Meloni is the third-longest-serving Italian prime minister
This is how Meloni carries on: she never truly exposes herself, avoids journalists' questions like the plague, and steers clear of taking ownership of her government's real political challenges.
Giorgia Meloni has surpassed Bettino Craxi – only and exclusively in terms of the amount of days spent in office, of course. The first female prime minister in Italian history has notched a new record, reaching third place among the longest-serving premiers, overtaking the Socialist leader who held power for 1,093 days between 1983 and 1986.
With her 1,095 days, the leader of Fratelli d'Italia has earned her spot on the podium. The top two places, still far into the distance for now, are both held by Silvio Berlusconi, for his second (1,412 days) and fourth (1,287 days) governments.
The prime minister’s bronze medal seems to be the result of a technique never practiced by her predecessors: hide-and-seek. Her approach of going underground while everything burns around her and then acting as if she just happened upon the scene has paid off – from the recessionary economy to the genocide in Gaza, not to mention the tariffs imposed by her friend Trump.
Her strategy of riding someone else's coattails to gain access to halls of power that were previously off-limits to the heirs of a post-fascist party has also paid off. She did it with Mario Draghi, ostensibly an adversary, whom she used as a sponsor to get through the door at the White House. She did it with Joe Biden, used as an indispensable ticket to gain acceptance into the European club, where Meloni had previously been treated like just another Marine Le Pen. And she also did it with Ursula von der Leyen, who later became a key ally of sovereignism.
Meloni’s ultra-Atlanticist conversion, which began during the Draghi government, was the necessary step to plant a seed that would bear fruit with the re-election of Donald Trump, the sworn enemy of a leaderless Europe. It is no coincidence that the U.S. president himself congratulated the Italian prime minister on Monday, reposting a tweet from LynneP, a MAGA account, on Truth Social: “Giorgia Meloni defies the EU and tries to get a direct trade deal with Trump. Well done Meloni. Brilliant move.” So brilliant, perhaps, that it blindsided her own Deputy Prime Minister and ally, Antonio Tajani, who rushed to do damage control: “We have always worked with the EU and thanks to Italy, some important steps forward have been made.”
Meloni herself did not comment on the matter, leaving it to the usual anonymous “sources at Palazzo Chigi” to set the record straight: namely that trade negotiations are the exclusive competence of the EU, but at the same time “bilateral talks have long been underway on the anti-dumping duties proposed by the Department of Commerce against certain Italian pasta producers.” In other words: no, but also yes.
After all, finding a free spot to take up for a photo-op in Strasbourg or Washington is usually enough for her to convince the folks back home that everything is fine, that Italy finally matters, and that gossip is just gossip. All she needs to do is blame the “defeatism” of the left and the unions. Defeatists because they’re so negative about Palestinians dying like flies under bombs and occupation; about the tariffs; about the stalled economic growth; about magistrates refusing to apply poorly written laws; about migrant deportations; about activists trying to break Netanyahu’s illegal blockades; about paying for rearmament instead of hospitals; or about releasing wanted torturers.
Instead of all that defeatism, staying put and waiting to follow the prevailing current is her successful strategy. So, beyond the slogan of “God, country, and family,” there remains a void. Everything continues in a sleepwalking state, oscillating between repressive laws and structural impotence. This is how Meloni carries on: she never truly exposes herself, avoids journalists' questions like the plague, and steers clear of taking ownership of her government's real political challenges, going to great lengths to avoid the sin of vanity that cost one of her predecessors, Matteo Renzi, his career.
Meloni must keep a photograph of Renzi somewhere in her home as a warning: for at least 15 years, Italian leaders have burned bright and faded in the blink of an eye, plummeting from overwhelming support to the risk of complete electoral irrelevance. Better to fly low, play the game of rhetoric, and avoid overexposure. As a result, the only real reform the current government has achieved while awaiting a constitutional referendum, the separation of the careers of judges and prosecutors, is not even an issue championed by her party, Fratelli d’Italia, but part of Forza Italia’s historical legacy. And the touted “mother of all reforms,” the direct election of the prime minister, has vanished without a trace. The prime minister prefers to let others take the fall in case of defeat. Better to send out the gaffe-prone Justice Minister Carlo Nordio than to stand on the front line herself.
The outcome is that the history books will have very few defining images to include from this legislature. Perhaps the embarrassing press conference after the Cutro migrant shipwreck, where the prime minister was bombarded with angry questions from journalists who had spent days counting the bodies washed ashore. The result was a grim decree invoking a vaguely worded war against traffickers “across the entire globe.”
Among the notable “successes” of this government is also the legal and human quagmire of the Albania deal, establishing migrant detention centers outside EU borders. Then there’s the militarization of troubled neighborhoods and the criminalization of dissent, with draconian penalties for peaceful protesters (including detainees).
But Monday was a day to celebrate the third-longest-lasting government in Italy’s republican history. At the same time, we can’t forget that the all-time record for time in power since Italy’s unification – two decades – belongs to a certain someone else. But that is another story.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/meloni-tre-anni-di-governo-tra-immobilismo-e-propaganda on 2025-10-21