The evolution of Giorgia Meloni: from the radical right to government pragmatism

The Economist magazine illustrated the cover of the last September 2022 issue with Giorgia Meloni's face on a background with the colors of the Italian flag. The image was accompanied by a rhetorical question: "Should Europe worry? Giorgia Meloni and the threat of the Italian right." However, after four years in power, The Economist's reservations about Meloni appear to have evaporated. In November 2025, he published a video titled "Why Meloni is an exceptional politician", in whose analysis the influential English magazine recognized that the moderation and pragmatism that have guided his government action have allowed Italy to achieve a political stability that it has not enjoyed for decades.

The truth is that the attitude of suspicion towards Meloni and his party was not without justification. Before coming to power in 2022, all the ideas of the radical right with a populist matrix sounded strongly in his speech: from sovereignty to sympathy for illiberal governments, through rhetoric against the so-called "globalist elites." Furthermore, the complex history of a part of the Italian right was projected onto Meloni's party. That of the heirs of nostalgia for fascism who, guided by the principle "do not renounce, do not restore" transitioned from neo-fascism to post-fascism, although not without problems, doubts and ambiguities.

However, power dispelled Meloni's image as a radical, rigid and intransigent politician. In return, he revealed a pragmatic and flexible disposition, capable of sacrificing the party's ideological baggage in order to retain power. The objective in sight was to become the new hegemonic party of the Italian right, introducing the necessary doses of moderation to be the interpreter of the sensitivity of the Italian center-right voter in a broad sense. The Atlanticism and Europeanism that Meloni has displayed in power perfectly illustrate the turn of his speech and the intention to build a new conservative party.

The record of longevity of Giorgia Meloni's Government—which totals 1,413 days in power—says a lot about its ability and political instinct in a country where governments have an average duration of 14 months. There is no doubt that the inability of the left to articulate an alternative government has also contributed to the tranquility of the leader of Fratelli d'Italia, allowing her to grow towards the center. However, what was not in Meloni's plans was to manage the competition on the right. And it is the one proposed by Futuro Nazionale, the newborn party of General Roberto Vannacci, who is willing to conquer the electorate that considers that the moderate turn of the Meloni government has gone too far.