Giorgia Meloni would make Machiavelli proud
Italy’s prime minister is far more popular than Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz
THE POLITICS of Italy have long been trapped in a cycle of rancid interaction between judges and prosecutors on the one hand and conservative politicians on the other. It dates from at least 1994, when the then prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was served with a subpoena while hosting a conference in Naples on organised crime. Berlusconi and his supporters claimed he was a victim of politically motivated jurists—and repeated that claim ad nauseam over the years that followed.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The tightrope walker”
From the October 26th 2024 edition
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The threat to free speech in Germany
One of the freest countries in the world takes a hammer to its own reputation
Europe’s streets are alive with the sound of protests
An arc of discontent runs through Serbia and Turkey
Young men in Spain love the hardline Vox
They find the rough populism of the hard right appealing
Power is being monopolised in Ukraine
Critics say the presidency is becoming too mighty, and making mistakes
Trump’s Ukraine ceasefire is slipping away
The American president increasingly looks like Russia’s willing dupe
Russia continues to rain down death on Ukrainian cities
Soldiers can hold the line, but drones and missiles are killing civilians