Giorgia Meloni in power in Italy: yes, but for how long?

Will the craze for Giorgia Meloni be just a new flash in the pan? Like many Italian leaders before her, the founder of the post-fascist party Fratelli d'Italia, which rose from 4% of the vote in 2018 to 26% on September 25, and who should be named head of a right-wing coalition, knew how to capitalize on the frustration of the population.

After the technocrat Mario Draghi, whose government lasted nineteen months, his successor, who worries Europe as much as the former boss of the ECB reassured her, will she be able to stay in power longer? He will have to thwart the low blows of two allies all the more unpredictable as they are weakened: Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League - fallen to less than 9% - and the unsinkable Silvio Berlusconi, 86, of Forza Italia . And to find compromises while the points of disagreement are numerous, in particular on the position vis-à-vis Moscow.

Above all, "the" Meloni, who has always hammered home her anti-system character, sought scapegoats and promised a lot, will now face reality in a very tense economic context, with the explosion of energy bills and a debt exceeding 150% of GDP. She who has described Europe as a "committe of businessmen, lobbyists and loan sharks" will have to agree with Brussels if she wants to benefit from the 191.5 billion euros of the European recovery plan.

Meloni will also be forced to discuss with Emmanuel Macron, whom she has often targeted. Not sure that these arrangements delight a population as skeptical - abstention has reached records - as versatile.