In her inaugural speech to Italy’s parliament, incoming prime minister Giorgia Meloni condemned fringe politics and vowed to continue Rome’s support for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. Meloni sought to allay popular concerns about the new government after her right-wing Brothers of Italy party assembled the country’s first right-wing coalition since the end of World War II.

Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, vowed that her party would not attempt to appeal to the country’s far-right or undermine Italian democracy. “I have never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic regimes … including fascism,” she said. She added that the new government would not make any attempt to withdraw from the European Union (EU) or from NATO, claiming that “Italy is fully part of Europe and the Western world.”

Meloni also emphasized that Rome would continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine more than eight months after the Russian invasion in February.

“[Italy] will continue to be a reliable partner of NATO in supporting Ukraine,” Meloni said in the speech. During her time in opposition to her predecessor, former prime minister Mario Draghi, Meloni had nonetheless supported his response to the Russian invasion, including the imposition of sanctions against the Kremlin and the cutoff of Russian natural gas flows to Italy. 

In mid-October, the Brothers of Italy successfully formed a coalition with two other conservative parties: the League, a right-wing populist party led by former deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, a center-right party led by controversial former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Brothers of Italy holds sixty-three seats in the Italian Senate while the League holds twenty-nine and Forza Italia eighteen.

In the months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Salvini and Berlusconi criticized Draghi’s policies and Berlusconi emphasized the importance of negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a personal friend. During their campaigns, both party leaders had also emphasized the negative economic impact of the sanctions on Italy, which was highly dependent on Russian natural gas prior to the invasion. However, Meloni insisted that she would not change course, describing Russia’s influence over the Italian energy market as “Putin’s blackmail.”

Outside of the Ukraine issue, the new coalition is right-wing in its political and economic outlook and it is expected to approve tax cuts in parliament in the coming months. At the same time, Meloni has vowed not to increase Italy’s already-massive debt burden, estimated to be 150 percent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP). She appointed Giancarlo Giorgetti, a moderate member of the League who served as economic development minister under Draghi, as the coalition’s finance minister and retained Roberto Cingolani, the country’s energy minister under Draghi, in an advisory role.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.