The Nationalist

GIORGIA MELONI IS THE FIRST FAR-RIGHT ITALIAN LEADER SINCE WORLD WAR II. WHERE SHE TAKES THE COUNTRY COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

- BY MASSIMO CALABRESI/ROME

IT'S LATE AFTERNOON ON JULY 4 IN ROME'S PALAZZO CHIGI, SEAT OF the Italian government, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is walking the marble-floored halls. She has spent the past hour answering questions about her personal history, rise to power, and record in office with disarming directness. But now, as the interview winds down, she has a question of her own. "You are an honest person," she begins in the crisp English that she says she learned from Michael Jackson songs.

"Is there something about Fascism that my experience reminds you of, about what I'm doing in government?" Fascism is a subject Meloni can't escape. When she came to power in October 2022 atop a movement founded by Benito Mussolini's last devoted followers, critics in Italy and across Europe said her calls for national pride and the defense of "Western civilization" portended a farright turn for the world's eighth largest economy. President Joe Biden cited her election as an example of the threat authoritarianism poses to global democracy.

But Meloni has confounded her critics. At home, she has tacked to the center on some of her more dramatic campaign promises, like imposing a naval blockade to stop shipborne illegal immigrants. On the international stage, she has behaved less like a right-wing revolutionary than a pragmatic conservative. Meloni has embraced the European Union, NATO, and Ukraine, worked to isolate China, and labored deftly to reconcile the fractious relationships between America and Europe during the start of President Donald Trump's second term. Along the way, she has won over leaders from across the ideological spectrum, from Biden to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Vice President J.D. Vance.