Italy elects a new leader - Giorgia Meloni

She is no beauty contestant .. a politician, in fact one set to become a leader of a Country !!

Nestled in Europe, Venice is a stunning oddity. It is a city built atop around 120 islands, crisscrossed by 177 canals, and is best explored – when on foot at least – via the use of its 391 bridges. It is a watery maze of a city, full of tiny footpaths and tucked away squares, hidden museums and secluded, centuries-old churches. Read that  all is not well in "La Serenissima". Indeed, if drastic measures are not taken, the city's days could be numbered !!  is that a hyperbole?  Venice is at very real risk of being consumed by the sea. In worst-case scenario, the city could disappear beneath the waves by as early as 2100. Meanwhile, many of its building are sinking or being damaged by the wakes of boats. It is also routinely overwhelmed by tourists, while its local population is in a state of continual decline. 

Moving away from this -  the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the threat to  democracy and economic chaos all  seen in the West as emanating from far-off capitals — Moscow, Beijing, Tehran. But now lot seem to be happening at Europe too - soon after the election in Sweden that saw an anti-immigration party making gains, water is flowing under the bridge in Italy too. Observers are wondering if Europe is seeing a new far-right wave.   For the first time since World War II, Europe’s third-largest economy will have a far-right government. The coalition led by Giorgia Meloni — soon to be Italy’s first woman prime minister — commands a majority in both houses of the legislature.

Giorgia Meloni is an Italian politician and journalist. A member of the Chamber of Deputies in Italy since 2006, she has led the Brothers of Italy (FdI) political party since 2014, and has been the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party since 2020. In the 2006 Italian general election, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the National Alliance (AN), where she became its youngest ever vice-president.    In 2008, she was appointed Minister of Youth in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet, a position she held until Nov  2011, when the prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi was forced to resign as the prime minister amid a financial crisis and public protests.  In August 2008, she invited Italian athletes to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in disagreement with the Chinese policy implemented towards Tibet; this statement was criticized by Berlusconi, as well as the foreign affairs minister Franco Frattini

Brothers of Italy (Italian: Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Italy led by Giorgia Meloni, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and former minister of youth in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet.  Brothers of Italy emerged from a right-wing split within Silvio Berlusconi's party, The People of Freedom (PdL), in December 2012.  The bulk of the party leadership (including Meloni), as well as the symbol of the movement (the tricolour flame),  comes from the National Alliance (AN, 1995–2009) party, which had merged into PdL in 2009. FdI's main ideological trends are conservatism, nationalism, nativism, Euroscepticism, and opposition to immigration.  

The 2022 Italian general election was a snap election held in Italy on 25 September 2022. After the fall of the Draghi government in July 2022, which led to a parliamentary impasse, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved the parliament on 21 July, and called for new elections. Regional elections in Sicily were held on the same day. The results of the general election show that  the centre-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy  winning an absolute majority of seats in the Italian Parliament.

In a record-low voter turnout, Meloni's party became the largest in Parliament with 26% of the vote, making her likely to become Prime Minister of Italy, as per the pre-election agreement among the centre-right coalition parties.  The newly elected legislature will be seated on 13 October; the new prime minister, likely Meloni, will take office at some point after. As a result of the 2020 Italian constitutional referendum, the size of Parliament was reduced to 400 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 200 members of the Senate of the Republic to be elected, down from 630 and 315, respectively. In addition, the minimum voting age for the Senate was the same as for the Chamber (18 years old and no longer 25), which marked the first time the two houses had identical electorates.

Interesting ! and would Italy and Sweden show the other European Nations a similar way  ?

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
28^th Sept. 2022.