The Meloni model is fraught with contradictions. The Italian prime minister is about to reach her first thousand days in power, having become the ideal of a "soluble" far right, as Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation, called it, apt to dissolve into alliances of convenience or necessity. But while the European right embraces the pragmatism of Giorgia Meloni, who is climbing the ranks as a global leader of the radical right, authoritarianism is eating away at Italy's battered democracy.
The recent approval of a security decree, presented as a necessary tool against public disorder, could become an instrument for the criminalization of nonviolent protest and the limitation of demonstrations in public spaces. For some time now, city councils governed by the Brothers of Italy have been banning citizen mobilizations, while the government's confrontation with judges is intensifying over the attempt to implement reforms that would weaken judicial independence. In addition, a commission of deputies is investigating the Meloni government's use of spyware against members of a humanitarian refugee aid organization.
But even so, Meloni has managed to lead one of the most stable administrations in recent Italy, and her domestic popularity remains undiminished. Pragmatism and the will to govern prevail over the differences between the three forces in a coalition serving the prime minister and her agenda. Sheltering behind the shield of a more centrist foreign policy—in the words of political scientist Natalie Tocci—behind which more radical positions prevail domestically, Meloni stands out in her strategy as an ally.
For Brussels, she is a model of fiscal discipline. Her government complies with the European Union's deficit targets, keeps debt under control, and has managed to avoid the public finance chaos of previous governments. Meloni also acts as a muse of ultra-liberalism, with four meetings with Argentine President Javier Milei in just over six months, and as an indispensable negotiator in the traumatic relations between Brussels and Donald Trump. Meloni has managed to make Atlanticism her card of "reliability," and, in her case, the fact that Italy is one of the countries with the lowest military expenditure in NATO has not affected her: last year, it only allocated 1.49% of its gross domestic product to its army, thus meeting the 5% target currently being demanded. However, the Italian has taken advantage of these negotiations to put on the agenda a pharaonic project to connect both sides of the Strait of Messina with the longest suspension bridge in the world, a long-held dream of the Romans, dictator Benito Mussolini, and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Meloni is also managing to export her migration strategy as a model. Italy and Denmark are leading a united front, which has now been joined by seven other European countries, to demand greater autonomy for EU governments to expel immigrants who have committed crimes. These nine member states have signed a letter calling for a political debate on international conventions on migration, starting with amending the European Convention on Human Rights.
Following his failed attempts at deportation in Albania—a multi-million-dollar project that has been prevented from taking effect due to judicial opposition—ten days ago, Meloni chaired a summit in Rome with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to strengthen Italy's strategy on the African continent. The so-called Mattei Plan, aimed at restricting emigration from Africa while simultaneously helping develop the continent's economy, is now also a project co-chaired by the head of the EU executive. Since her first term, Von der Leyen has already embraced the strategy of outsourcing European border control to countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, particularly Tunisia, despite the serious human rights violations these policies have entailed so far.
In the era of transactionality, Meloni has emerged as a defender of Western unity. Clinging to the motto of homeland, family, and faith, and without renouncing her admiration for fascism, the Italian prime minister insists she doesn't intend to choose between Washington and Brussels. For the moment, Trump has opened the doors of his circle of power to her, and Von der Leyen needs her to gain access. This mix of possibilism and radical conservatism is what has taken Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, from the fringes to the center of power in less than a decade.
