Italy Elects Its First Woman Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni

A panel discussion on a historic election in Italy.

On September 22, speaking at Princeton University in the United States, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated that Europe had “the tools” to deal with Italy if the results of the election went in a “difficult direction”.
Italian voters responded on September 25th with a victory for Meloni, co-founder of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) in 2012.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reporter used the word “fascist” 28 times in the article to describe the first woman premier in Italian history.
She replaces Mario Draghi, who was appointed without standing for parliament or being elected. If she is appointed -as expected- by the president, as the leader of the largest single party she will be the first elected head of government in the last four elections.
Fratelli d’ Italia is a party which garnered only 4% of the vote in 2018. And yet Meloni experienced a meteoric rise to win Sunday’s election with a projected vote of over 25%.
Her conservative coalition of three parties Salvini’s Lega and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia
will enjoy a substantial parliamentary majority in both houses and will replace the appointed prime minister, Mario Draghi with the first leader who has actually stood for election since the past three Italian governments which each had an appointed, not an elected leader.

What does it mean for Italy? For Hungary? For centre-right parties in Europe? For Italian 10-year sovereign bonds and the markets in general?
Why does Meloni’s phrase “We defend God, country and family” strike terror in the hearts of the left?

Speakers:
- John O’Sullivan, President of the Danube Institute
- Alvino Mario Fantini, Editor-in-Chief of the European Conservative
- Alberto Mingardi, President of the Bruno Leoni Think Tank, Milan
- Benjamin Harnwell, Host, Bannon’s War Room, Rome
- John Prout, markets expert
- Rod Dreher, Author of ‘Live Not by Lies’, Director of Network Project at the Danube Institute