There is much excitement among western Europe’s chattering classes after Elly Schlein was elected the new leader of Italy’s left-wing Democratic party. It is the first time that a woman has led the Italian left. The Guardian quoted the 37-year-old as saying her party will now be ‘a problem’ for Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s conservative PM.
On the contrary. Schlein’s elevation to party leader is an electoral gift for Meloni, whose sex is the only thing she has in common with her new foe.
Schlein has not drawn any lessons from the collapse of the French Socialists
Meloni was raised by a single mum in a working-class district of Rome and supported herself working as a bartender and a nanny in her youth. Schlein was born in Switzerland to an American father and an Italian mother, both university professors. She settled in Italy aged 19 and read law at Bologna university; her website states that her thesis
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