Time crowns Meloni as European leader: from support to NATO and EU to the new identity of the Italian right
Giorgia Meloni is again in the center of the international scene, This time immortalized on the cover of Timethe American magazine that dedicated a long portrait signed by Massimo Calabresi to the Premier. The chosen title is directed: “Where Giorgia Meloni is leading Europe”, literally “where Giorgia Meloni is leading Europe”. A statement that sounds like a global consecration, Almost three years after the rise to Palazzo Chigi.
From Garbatella to European power
The service puts in line the path of the leader of Fratelli d’Italia, telling the parable of a woman who From Garbatella – Roman popular neighborhood, raised by a single mother and without a degree – has come to conquer the center of European power. A transformation that, second Timeeven surprised the great international leaders: From Joe Biden to Ursula von der Leyen, passing through Donald Trumpwith which Meloni has woven a direct relationship, made of respect and pragmatism.
A “responsible patriotic right”
Calabresi underlines how the premier has known get away from the neo -fascist rhetoricchoosing to propose itself as a face of a “responsible patriotic right” that defends national identity, while maintaining a firm support for NATO, the European Union and Ukraine. “We must defend what we are, our culture, our identity,” says Meloni in the interview, describing a nationalism that defines “a shield against a globalization that has not worked”.
Criticism and challenge to detractors
The portrait, however, is not limited to agiography. Time It also highlights the criticisms that rain on the Italian government: The measures on safety, the hard line on immigration often braked by the courts, tensions with the judiciary and the ban on surrogate motherhood also abroad. Meloni, in the face of the accusations of authoritarianism, reacts firmly: “Ideological prejudices based on my past”, he says, and then challenge the author: “Is there something about fascism that my experience reminds you of?”.
The character forged by youth
The portrait also digs in private life and in the youth of the premier. His sister Arianna remembers the abandonment of the father and the fire that destroyed their homeepisodes that would have chipped Giorgia’s character, “making it what it is today”. She herself smiles when she tells: “Maybe I joined the MSI for the flame”.
A climb that looks to Europe
From that symbol to the government of the country, Meloni has gone through thirty years of politicsbringing Brothers of Italy from 2% to the peaks of the center -right leadership. A climb that today attracts attention also abroad, where its model of “institutional nationalism” is observed with a leading curiosity such as Starmer or Von der Leyen.
And while Time defines it “One of the most interesting figures in Europe”Meloni claims to have remained faithful to himself, without giving in to the labels: “I’m not racist. I’m not homophobic. It’s not all the things they say of me “. A phrase that sounds like yet another challenge, this time addressed to the whole world.
