Economic woes mar Italy PM's 1st year in office

Amid slowing growth and rising debt, she has also had to deal with personal turmoil

ROME Weak economic growth and high interest on the country's huge debt are the main problems facing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after her first year in power, an anniversary marked by an abrupt announcement she was leaving her long-time partner.

Ms Meloni's coalition, the first led by a woman in Italy's history, was sworn in a year ago after a sweeping election victory and will soon cruise past the 14-month average postwar term life for Italian governments.

When it came into power, it was seen as the country's most rightwing government since wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, as Ms Meloni's Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, or MSI.

Yet Ms Meloni, 46, set about quelling foreign concerns of possible extremism, forging good ties with allies by adopting a strongly pro-Western, European Unionfriendly stance and pledging staunch support to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

At home, she pleased her rightist grassroots through measures to defend the traditional family, protect Italy's cultural heritage and try to stem migrant arrivals.

"We have worked tirelessly to repay the trust and to demonstrate with facts that it was possible to build a different Italy," she said in a video message last week.