Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni sworn in as Italian prime minister
LA TimesItalian President Sergio Mattarella speaks to new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her swearing-in ceremony at Quirinal presidential palace in Rome on Saturday. Giorgia Meloni, whose political party with neo-fascist roots secured the most votes in Italy’s national election last month, was sworn in Saturday as the country’s first far-right prime minister since the end of World War II. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, referring to Meloni and Salvini, wrote on Twitter: “Throughout Europe, patriots are coming to power and with them, this Europe of nations.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another far-right autocrat, hailed the birth of the new Italian government as a “big day for the European Right.” In an unusual touch for a country used to male-dominated politics and power, Meloni’s companion, a journalist in Berlusconi’s media empire, attended Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony along with the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Ginevra. Though Meloni didn’t campaign openly to be Italy’s first female prime minister, she has said her victory would clearly break through the “glass ceiling” that discourages the progress of women.