Italy on track to become the first major EU economy with a far-right leader

• Elections Giorgia Meloni, the admirer of Mussolini who aspires to become head of the Italian Government

• Profile Mario Draghi, "whatever it takes" for the unity of Italy

Since the unexpected fall of Mario Draghi's government last July, all the spotlights have been on her.

The leader of the only party that is not part of the national coalition headed by the former president of the European Central Bank, now in office.

The politician who starts as the favorite to lead the coalition that will receive the most votes in the next

, according to the polls.

And someone who claims to have learned more "working as a waitress than as a politician."

Giorgia Meloni, 45, aspires to become the first woman to occupy the Chigi Palace.

There is less than a month left for the Italian appointment with the polls, and the voting intention polls give

(Brothers of Italy, Liga and Forza Italia), compared to 29, 5% from the Democratic Party (PD), led by Enrico Letta, and other leftist parties.

Therefore, it is more than likely that on September 25 the European Union will see one of its founding members and one of its large economies be governed by a far-right leader.

The polls anticipate that the great intrigue of election day will be which party gets more votes, Meloni's or Letta's, since both are now around 25%.

But Italian politics is unpredictable, and the campaign has only just started.

Ancona

, on the shores of the Adriatic, was the city chosen by Meloni for the starting gun of his campaign last Tuesday.

The ultra leader offered a more restrained speech than in previous interventions.

She charged against a Brussels that had become accustomed to a friendly interlocutor and a great Europeanist like Draghi.

Meloni criticized her management of the energy crisis and her excessive interventionism, however,

, such as the minority Italexit, which support leaving the EU.

"We want a different Italian attitude on the international scene, for example in dealing with the European Commission, (but) this

," Meloni said in an interview with Reuters.

"It simply means explaining that defending the national interest is important to us as it is to the French and the Germans," she added.

Regarding economic issues, the nationalist leader wanted to reassure the markets, in which uncertainty reigns since the fall of the prime minister, who represented a trusted figure for investors: "I am very cautious (...) No person responsible, before having a complete picture of the resources that can be invested, you can imagine the collapse of the country's finances".

For the rest, the classic proposals: discourse against immigration, LGTBI rights and abortion.

Precisely this week, Meloni has sparked controversy for sharing on his social networks the video of a woman being raped by a Nigerian in the middle of the street, blaming it on a lack of security in the country that, he says, he will stop if he wins the elections. .

The video was deleted by her own platforms, but she said she did not regret sharing it.

The "laboratory" of the extreme right

Ancona, the city from where Meloni started his electoral campaign, belongs to the

region , which is chaired

, member of Brothers of Italy.

The region acts as a "laboratory" for the policies of the extreme right in Italy, and celebrities such as the businesswoman and 'influencer' Chiara Ferragni have already sounded the alert about the possibility that some of the regulations that are already implemented in Las Brands are exported nationally if Meloni reaches 'premier'.

"Now is our time to act and make sure that these things do not happen. Brothers of Italy has made it practically impossible to have an abortion in the Marches, where it governs. A policy that risks becoming national if the right wins the elections," he warned. Ferragni in his social networks.

PD deputy

joined the criticism stating that the extreme right wants to make the region a "model for the country, a laboratory of denied rights, just like Texas, just like Viktor Orban's Hungary."

Both Meloni and Matteo Salvini (leader of the League) are against the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, a right acquired in the country since 1978, but the leader of the Brothers of Italy recently said that it was not on her agenda to abolish the law.

In June, Meloni participated as a guest at a VOX rally in Marbella in which

and "the end of motherhood".

He also charged against the "LGTBI lobbyists" in defense of "the natural family" and praised the "universality of the cross against" "Islamist violence."

At the end of July, the division in the center-left dynamited a coalition of unity that had brought a period of stability in the country from the political lurches.

In the 21st century alone, Italians have already had ten prime ministers, more than any other European power.

," Mario Draghi said this week during a meeting with young people in which Giorgia Meloni also spoke.

Paradoxically, the public received both leaders with standing ovations and long applause.

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