Meloni may soon be Italy’s longest-serving postwar leader – but can her government deliver?

In Giorgia Meloni’s busy 2026 calendar, September 4th is a day of special significance. That will be the day Italy’s first female prime minister, if still in office, surpasses the late Silvio Berlusconi’s record for the longest continuous term in office since the second World War.

Such political endurance would be no small achievement in a country that has had 68 governments – lasting on average just over a year – since its republic was born in 1946. Meloni’s own election, in September 2022, followed the collapse of a technocratic national unity government led by Mario Draghi, the respected former European Central Bank president.

Few foresaw at the time that the fiery former opposition leader – whose Brothers of Italy party is rooted in postwar neo-fascism – would preside over Italy’s longest period of political calm in decades. Less surprising is that Meloni and her allies routinely trumpet their administration’s stability.

“We’ve been given a historic opportunity to make Italy the country we’ve always dreamt of,” Meloni told supporters at Atreju, the Brothers of Italy’s annual political festival, in Rome last month. “We’re establishing an Italy that’s completely different from the one the world knew – and the one to which Italians themselves had seemed resigned.”

But for all her aspirations to be a transformative leader, Meloni has struggled to articulate a clear vision for Italy’s future – especially for its sputtering economy, with its rapidly ageing workforce.

Giorgia Meloni is scheduled to face general elections in Italy next year. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

Many Italians are questioning what her government, a coalition of her party with the far-right League and conservative Forza Italia, has actually accomplished beyond survival. For many – from ordinary workers to members of the business community – the answer so far is: disappointingly little.

Now, with the next general elections looming in 2027, Meloni has a little over a year left to demonstrate that she is more than just a cautious caretaker, and can offer meaningful policy solutions to Italy’s pressing economic challenges.

“It’s a fantastic coalition because Meloni is able to impose discipline, and so the long-term endurance of the