In the

2022 Italian general election Snap election, Snap general elections were held in Italy on 25 September 2022. After the fall of the Draghi government, which led to a parliamentary impasse, President of Italy, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved Parliament on 21 July, and ca ...

, the

centre-right coalition The centre-right coalition () is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed the party. It has mostly competed with the centre-left c ...

led by

Giorgia Meloni Giorgia Meloni (; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy since 2022. She is the first woman to hold the office. A member of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), Chamber of Deputies since 2006, s ...

Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy (, FdI) is a National conservatism, national-conservative and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Italy, that is currently the country's ruling party. After becoming the largest party in the 2022 Ita ...

(FdI) won an

absolute majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the " Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a gr ...

of seats in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

. On 20 October, a few days following the elections of the presidents of the two houses of Parliament,

Ignazio La Russa Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa (born 18 July 1947) is an Italian politician who is serving as President of the Senate of the Republic (Italy), president of the Senate of the Republic since 2022 President of the Italian Senate election, 13 Octob ...

of FdI on 13 October for the Senate of the Republic, and

Lorenzo Fontana Lorenzo Fontana (born 10 April 1980) is an Italian politician and member of the Lega (political party), League (Lega), who is serving as President of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), President of the Chamber of Deputies since 2022 President of t ...

of the League on 14 October for the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, consultations on the formation of a new cabinet officially began. The Cabinet was announced on 21 October and was officially sworn in on the next day. It was one of the fastest government formations in the

history of the Italian Republic The history of the Italian Republic concerns the events relating to the history of Italy that have occurred since 1946, when Italy became a republic after the 1946 Italian institutional referendum. The Italian republican history is generally div ...

. The first Italian cabinet headed by a female

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, it was variously described as a shift to the

political right Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, ...

, and as the first

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

-led Italian government since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Post-election developments

Election of parliamentary speakers

On 13 October, FdI's

was elected President of the Senate of the Republic. He is the first politician with a

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...

background and to come from a post-fascist party to hold the position, which is the second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic. He was proclaimed president by

Liliana Segre Liliana Segre (; born 10 September 1930) is an Italian Holocaust survivor, named List of senators for life in Italy, senator for life by President Sergio Mattarella in 2018 for outstanding patriotic merits in the social field. Born in 1930 int ...

, a

senator for life A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , five Italian senators out of 205, two out of the 41 Burundian senators, one Congolese senator out of 109, and all members of the Bri ...

and

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

, who presided the first meeting of the Senate due to her being the oldest member present. On 14 October,

, who is widely seen as an ultraconservative for his long-time

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...

and

anti-LGBT The following outline offers an overview and guide to topics about LGBTQ people. ''LGBTQ'' is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer". It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual, non-heteroroman ...

views, was elected

President of the Chamber of Deputies President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsidente ...

for the League.

Tensions within the centre-right coalition

Immediately after the first meeting of the new legislature, the

XIX legislature of Italy The Legislature XIX of Italian Republic () is the 19th and current Italian Parliament, which was elected at the 2022 general election on 25 September and convened on 12 October. As per the 2020 Italian constitutional referendum, the size of the C ...

, tensions began to grow within the centre-right coalition. On 13 October,

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

(FI) refused to support La Russa's candidacy for President of the Senate of the Republic. La Russa nonetheless succeeded in being elected by obtaining 116 votes out of 206 in the first round, thanks to support from opposition parties. Tensions further grew, in particular between Berlusconi and Meloni, whom Berlusconi described as "patronising, overbearing, arrogant ... ndoffensive" in a series of written notes in the Senate. Additionally, Berlusconi's views of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

and

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, with whom he said he was rekindling their friendship and claimed to have received vodka as a gift and exchanged letters, came to light a few days later, when a recording of a private conversation between him and MPs from his party was leaked. Meloni declared that "Italy, with its head high, is part of Europe and the

Atlantic Alliance The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath ...

", before adding: "Whoever doesn't agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not having a government."

Meloni Cabinet

During talks with President

Sergio Mattarella Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician and jurist who has served as the president of Italy since 2015. He is the longest-serving president in the history of the Italian Republic. Since Giorgio Napolitano's death in 20 ...

on 20 October, delegates from the Democratic Party, the

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( , M5S) is a political party in Italy, led by Giuseppe Conte. It was launched on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a political activist and comedian, and Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist. The party is primarily d ...

Action – Italia Viva Action – Italia Viva (; A–IV), informally known as the Third Pole (), was a Liberalism, liberal and centrist parliamentary group and electoral list which ran in the 2022 Italian general election. The list was led by Carlo Calenda. During the ...

For the Autonomies For the Autonomies (, Aut) is a heterogeneous, mostly centrist, centre-left and regionalist, parliamentary group which has been active, with slightly different names and compositions, in the Italian Senate since 2001. History The group was for ...

, and various sub-groups within the

Mixed Group The mixed group (, GM) is a parliamentary group active in both houses of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. ...

stated they would not back a Meloni-led government during confidence votes. On the following day, delegates from FdI, the League, FI, and

Civics of Italy Civics of Italy (, Cd'I), officially Civics of Italy – UDC – Us Moderates ( Us with Italy, Coraggio Italia, Italy in the Centre) – MAIE – Popular Centre (), is a centre-right parliamentary group in the Senate of the Republic, establ ...

, as well as

Us Moderates Us Moderates (, NM) is a centrist political party in Italy, led by Maurizio Lupi. The party has had several associated members and regional partners. At the European level, it is a member of the European People's Party. Most of NM's members and e ...

and the

Associative Movement Italians Abroad The Associative Movement of Italians Abroad () is an Italian political party representing Italians abroad. Based in Argentina and active mainly in South America, the MAIE is a centrist party. History The party emerged from the split of the libera ...

subgroup within the Mixed Group, which together held 237 seats out of 400 in the lower house and 116 seats out of 206 in the upper house, announced to Mattarella they had reached an agreement to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with Meloni as Prime Minister. In the afternoon, Mattarella summoned Meloni to the

Quirinal Palace The Quirinal Palace ( ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, the main official residence of the President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporziano, an estate on the outs ...

and gave her the task of forming a new cabinet, which was officially sworn in on 22 October. On 31 October, the government nominated its deputy ministers and undersecretaries.

Galeazzo Bignami Galeazzo Bignami (born 25 October 1975) is an Italian politician of Brothers of Italy serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was first elected in the 2018 general election, and was re-elected in 2022 The year began with ...

, one of the chosen deputy ministers, caused controversy and garnered international attention as a 2005 photo of him with a Nazi armband became public.

Investiture votes

On 25 October, Meloni gave her first official speech as Prime Minister in front of the Chamber of Deputies, before the confidence vote on her cabinet. During her speech, she stressed the weight of being the first woman to serve as head of the Italian government. Meloni thanked several Italian women, notably including

Tina Anselmi Tina Anselmi (25 March 1927 – 1 November 2016) was an Italian politician. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she went on to become the first woman to hold a ministerial position in an Italian government. Early li ...

Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti (; born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Astronaut Corps, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two Women in space, women sent into space by ESA and ...

Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; or Gràtzia Deledda ; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity p ...

Oriana Fallaci Oriana Fallaci (; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for h ...

Nilde Iotti Leonilde "Nilde" Iotti (; 10 April 1920 – 4 December 1999) was an Italian politician, member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Towards the end of World War Two, she fought as a partisan for the Italian resistance. She was the first and o ...

Rita Levi-Montalcini Rita Levi-Montalcini ( , ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian neurobiologist. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor ( ...

, and

Maria Montessori Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( ; ; 31 August 1870 – 6 May 1952) was an Italians, Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education (the Montessori method) and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early a ...

, who she said, "with the boards of their own examples, built the ladder that today allows me to climb and break the heavy

glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Ful ...

placed over our heads." Later that same day, the Chamber of Deputies approved the Meloni Cabinet with 235 votes in favor, 154 votes against, and 5 abstentions. On 26 October, the Senate of the Republic approved the Meloni Cabinet with 115 votes in favor, 79 against, and 5 abstentions. Senators for life

Elena Cattaneo Elena Cattaneo (; born 22 October 1962) is an Italian people, Italian pharmacology, pharmacologist and co-founding director of the University of Milan's Center for Stem Cell Research. She is an internationally prominent Huntington's disease res ...

and

Mario Monti Mario Monti (; born 19 March 1943) is an Italian politician, economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a Technocratic government (Italy), technocratic government in the wake of the European sov ...

abstained, while senators for life Liliana Segre,

Carlo Rubbia Carlo Rubbia (born 31 March 1934) is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN. Early life and educatio ...

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable works include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), Kansai International Airport in Osaka (1994), the Whitney ...

, and

Giorgio Napolitano Giorgio Napolitano (; 29 June 1925 – 22 September 2023) was an Italian politician who served as President of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first to be re-elected to the office. In office for 8 years and 244 days, he was the longest-serving pre ...

were not present during the vote.

References

{{reflist Italian government formation Giorgia Meloni

Government formation Government formation is the process in a parliamentary system of selecting a prime minister and cabinet members. If no party controls a majority of seats, it can also involve deciding which parties will be part of a coalition government. It us ...