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Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and her party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) are the big winners of the country’s general election. As Sofia Ammassari and I discuss in our article, the result represents two historic firsts: Meloni is going to be Italy’s first woman prime minister, and hers will be the first far-right majority government in Western Europe since the end of the Second World War.
Meloni’s result marks a new point in my own history of following Italy. From being an undergraduate Irish exchange student in Trieste in the mid-1990s and watching the rise of a tycoon-turned-politician Silvio Berlusconi, I ended up living well over a decade in the country and writing books about the fortunes of the Italian right-wing coalition. Until recently, they had produced a series of Berlusconi-led populist centre-right governments with a far-right edge. Now, however, the pendulum has swung and Italians will soon be living under a far-right populist government with a centre-right edge.
As Sofia and I explain, this will have some elements of continuity on economic and foreign policy, but may also bring in change.
• A 26-year long deep dive into the mining industry
• The shocking case of Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran
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Sofia Ammassari, Griffith University; Duncan McDonnell, Griffith University
Italy will have its first woman prime minister. And both Italy and Western Europe will have their first far-right majority government since the fall of Mussolini and the end of the Second World War.
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Balsam Mustafa, University of Warwick
Feminist campaigners are using the internet to challenge the conservative establishment and empower Arab women.
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Bridget Storrie, UCL
Our prospects of a better, fairer future are inextricably linked with the minerals and metals beneath our feet. Is it time to make peace with the industry that extracts them?
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Kathleen Frydl, Johns Hopkins University
The United States came in 41st worldwide on the UN’s 2022 sustainable development index, down nine spots from last year. A political historian explains the country’s dismal scores.
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Steven Tingay, Curtin University
The first ever planetary defence test is about to take place 11 million kilometres from Earth. All we can do is wait and see.
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Farsan Ghassim, University of Oxford
Reform of the UN to make it more inclusive and accountable is long overdue, the two leaders have said.
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Abdhalah Ziraba, African Population and Health Research Center
The Sudan strain of the Ebola virus has been identified in Uganda for the first time in more than a decade.
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Anthony Kaziboni, University of Johannesburg
Scapegoating immigrants will not result in significantly improved healthcare service provision, reduced crime or less unemployment.
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Omowumi Iledare, University of Cape Coast
Insecurity of assets and life with declining capacity for technical and market production are responsible for Nigeria’s low crude oil production.
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Rosemary Grey, University of Sydney; Rachel Killean, University of Sydney
Many Khmer Rouge leaders died before they could be indicted, and attempts to prosecute other suspects were blocked by the Cambodian government. Now, attention is turning to the tribunal’s legacy.
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Katy Highet, University of the West of Scotland
The controversial reality show is only part of the picture when it comes to class and education in Indian marriage negotiations.
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Deepasri Prasad, Dartmouth College; Wilma Bainbridge, University of Chicago
People are puzzled when they learn they share the same false memories with others. That’s partly because they assume that what they remember and forget ought to be based only on personal experience.
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Dinah Birch, University of Liverpool
A short guide to the Wolf Hall author’s remarkably varied back catalogue.
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