Giorgia Meloni Is the Anti-Starmer of Europe

Meet the new Giorgia Meloni: better and, if anything, feistier than the old Meloni. A month or so ago, it looked as if the Italian prime minister was fizzling out. Her alliance with Donald Trump had become an encumbrance and she had lost an important referendum on judicial reform. Today she is reborn as Europe’s most vitriolic critic of strongmen.

Meloni has turned insulting the US president into an art form and condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s bellicose Israeli policies. Italy’s government has also given the Russian ambassador to Rome a dressing down after a Moscow TV presenter called Meloni a “wild beast” and “fascist creature.” As for the referendum, memories have faded. The shape-shifting right-wing populist remains the closest thing to a star in Europe’s grey political firmament — cracking jokes in a demotic Roman accent and rolling her eyes like a champion.