ITALY - FDI

Party: Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) (Brothers of Italy) 

Leader: Giorgia Meloni 

Type leader: Meloni is right-wing populist with political roots in Italian fascism (she is a former member of the neo-fascist Youth Front, founded in 1946). Since becoming Prime Minister, she has aligned with EU/USA efforts to defend and support Ukraine, thus inverting her prior pro-Russia position to take a new, firm Atlanticist stance. This has led some international and Western press to see her as having softened her extremism. She is opposed by progressives in Italy for her hard right immigration policy, for attempts to control and censor public media content, and for her anti-gay views and policies.  

% National Vote: FdI won 44% of the national vote in the 2022 Italian general election.

Position in Government: Meloni is the current prime minister of Italy and leader of a coalition government that includes Salvini’s Lega. 

Platform: Anti-immigrant (under Meloni, Italy regularly impounds medical humanitarian ships that save African migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea), anti-LGBTQIA+, pro-EU reform (Italy is the largest recipient of the EU Covid-related economic stimulus package). 

European Parliament: In the 2024 EU parliamentary elections, FdI won 28.8% of the national vote, taking 24 of 76 Italian seats. Meloni is the leader of the right-wing EU coalition European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which FDI dominates; it includes Poland’s PiS. The ECR currently holds 78/720 seats in the EU parliament.