Giorgia Meloni, who is about to become Italy’s first female prime minister, has won her first major battle. It was fought, not against her countless enemies, but against her ally Silvio Berlusconi.
In a crucial victory, Meloni has forced Berlusconi, the four-time prime minister, to concede unequivocally that she – not he – is the boss of the right-wing coalition that won such a large majority at the general election last month.
The 86-year-old rogue may well look these days like a waxwork model that has somehow come alive, but he remains a classic macho Italian man who finds it virtually impossible to take orders from women. Yet he has had to take orders from her.
The battle began when 45-year-old Meloni – whose Brothers of Italy party has by far the most seats in the victorious right-wing coalition – refused to appoint a Berlusconi favourite, the glamorous Licia Ronzulli, to a senior cabinet post.
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