All the Right stuff — the making of Meloni

Of all the world’s elected female leaders Giorgia Meloni, the proudly Right-wing prime minister of Italy, is one of the least conventional — and certainly the most powerful. The 48-year-old leader of the Brothers of Italy party has now been prime minister for more than a thousand days, making hers the seventh-longest government in Italian democratic history.

- Robert Fox

I Am Giorgia, now appearing in English with a foreword from Donald Trump Jr, was written just after the Covid pandemic and before she became prime minister. It’s part autobiography and part credo, and all the more intriguing for that. Since taking office in October 2022, Meloni has guided Italy through the usual menu of political squalls with some aplomb — although not to everyone's taste and approval.

Italy is suffering from massive public debt — more than 135 per cent of GDP — crashing birthrates and the onset of demographic wintering, a chronic illegal immigrant crisis, the strains of the war in Ukraine and being a major regional power sitting on the edge of Europe.

Sounds familiar? So unlike our own doubt-enshrouded islands you might say. The contrast starts with the leader herself — where charm, will and sense of purpose shine. She cuts through with wit and empathy in five languages, yet, as she herself recognises, is easily underestimated.