Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government became the country’s longest-serving uninterrupted administration since World War II on September 3, surpassing the record set by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi between 2001 and 2005.
None of Italy’s 68 governments during the country’s 80 years as a republic has completed a full five-year term without interruption, as Italian media outlets note.
Berlusconi, who was an important supporter of Meloni as she rose through Italy’s conservative and right-leaning political camp, came closest to completing an uninterrupted term. However, a government crisis forced him to resign briefly in 2005 before he formed a new Cabinet.
Meloni and her party are expected to celebrate the milestone later this week with a large pre-election rally in the southern city of Bari.
Known for her straightforward and pragmatic political style, Meloni has managed to avoid the crises and defections that brought down previous Italian governments. The results of this unusually stable period could ultimately shape her political legacy and determine her prospects of securing another term.
When Meloni took office in October 2022, she became Italy’s first female prime minister. Her government was also the first led by a party with neo-fascist roots, prompting concern among some European allies and financial markets.
However, she has largely governed pragmatically as she maintained firm support for Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict with Russia, worked within European institutions and pursued fiscal discipline.
Her robust relationship with US President Donald Trump upon him entering his second term, at least initially, has also emerged as one of her most prominent foreign policy assets.
While political instability has reshaped governments elsewhere in Europe, including in the United Kingdom and France, Meloni has kept the same coalition together since taking office. Such continuity is unusual in modern Italian politics and has become a central element of her bid for re-election.
“Meloni has reaped a part of what she sowed, because I know few people so determined, so hardworking, so precise, so meticulous, who have sacrificed both their human and private spheres in order to serve the institutions,” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
“For this she is now reaping exactly what she deserves in terms of international credibility,” he said, speaking in a room at the ministry filled with photographs of his predecessors. “She is not reaping the same on the Italian level.”
Italians will head to the polls for the country’s next general election no later than December 2027.
By Nazrin Sadigova
