ČRo: Giorgia Meloni is very likely to become Italy's new Prime Minister

As expected, Italians chose the right in the early elections. According to commentators, the winner of the election is clearly the Brothers of Italy party, whose leader Giorga Meloni has already announced that she is ready to govern. Our research associate Alexandr Lagazzi also analysed this topic for Český rozhlas.

"It certainly looks like a right-wing coalition and I expect Meloni to become Italy's prime minister. Of course it could take a long time, even more months, but it's clear, it was already said in that coalition agreement before the election that within this right-wing coalition, if they win the election, of course with how many votes the Brothers of Italy got, Meloni will put herself in the position of Prime Minister, so I expect that to be the case, but it's absolutely true that what's coming now is quite a long negotiation of all the ministerial overlapping positions. The actual shape of the government, it's not clear yet and it's going to be a while before we know exactly who is going to sit in those top positions."  

"It was a very emotional election, the economic crisis, the energy crisis, the war in Ukraine and social issues were very much on the agenda of the election campaign of absolutely all political parties. But what convinced over a quarter of the voters was actually the constant opposition criticism of the Mario Draghi government by Meloni. She has spent the last year and a half criticising everything that has been introduced. At the same time, however, she has thereby profiled herself as the only alternative, the other party leaders being rather dysfunctional in the eyes of Italians, along with the fall of the government, even though two of them are currently in coalition. Thus, she did not have a direct strong opponent. It is certainly clear that, for example, it is precisely in the context of improving Italy's economic situation that Meloni will have to continue with the reforms put forward by Draghi. At issue is an aid package worth around 200 billion euros, which Meloni certainly does not want to lose."

 You can listen to the full interview here.

Alexandr Lagazzi
Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: Diplomacy, EU foreign policy, Italy, China, International security, Terrorism, Behavioural Economics