Italy turned a page of European history by electing a hard-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, a high school graduate. Her long record of bashing the European Union and migrants has sown concern about the nation’s reliability in the Western alliance.
Meloni’s ultraconservative party, Brothers of Italy, descended from the remnants of fascism. The party formed the country’s first far right-led government since World War II, with Meloni at the helm as Italy’s first female premier. Meloni’s victory lurched Italy, a founding member of the EU and its third-largest economy, sharply to the far-right.
The victory of Meloni comes at a critical time for Europe. Sanctions against Russia are driving up inflation. Ms. Meloni knows Italians’ main concerns are an acute cost of living crisis and spiraling energy costs.
義大利大選選出高中畢業的喬治亞•梅洛尼領導的極右派聯盟,為歐洲帶來新氣象。她長期抨擊歐盟及移民,讓外界擔憂義大利在西方聯盟中是否可靠。
梅洛尼所屬的極端保守派義大利兄弟黨源自法西斯殘餘勢力,該黨成立了義大利二戰以來第一個極右派領導的政府,並由該國第一位女總理梅洛尼掌舵。義大利是歐盟的創始成員國,也是第三大經濟體,梅洛尼的勝利讓義大利迅速傾向極右翼。
梅洛尼的勝選正值歐洲的關鍵時刻,對俄羅斯的制裁而推升了通膨。梅洛尼很清楚,義大利人最在乎的是嚴峻的生活成本危機,以及不斷攀升的能源成本。