Barely 18 months her senior, Arianna Meloni has always been a pillar in the life of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In her autobiography, Io sono Giorgia, she defines her as the most important person in her life until the birth of her daughter Ginevra. During her tormented childhood, after her father abandoned her, the Meloni sisters did everything together. Also the beginnings of it in the political world. Like the first, Arianna signed up when she was a teenager to join the youth of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). “There is no secret that she does not confess, advice that she does not ask for,” Meloni recounted in her book.
Now Arianna Meloni, 48, will be more than just the prime minister’s shadow sister. The Italian leader has been criticized for nepotism after having appointed her in charge of the political secretariat of the Brothers of Italy and responsible for the new income, and she will have the power to monitor who can be a candidate and who cannot. She thus becomes one of the most important figures in the formation, at the same level as the deputy Giovanni Donzelli, head of the national organization, who until now was considered Meloni’s operational arm in Brothers of Italy.
The appointment is part of a remodeling of the party apparatus and a series of changes in Palacio Chigi, seat of the Italian Executive. According to the newspaper Il Foglio, he will also promote Senator Giovanbattista Fazzolari, who is undersecretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers and is considered one of the people Meloni trusts the most. At the beginning of September he should become the coordinator of the communication of the Government and the party. Until now, the journalist Mario Sechi was the one who dealt with this, but he had already revealed that he was going to leave the post at the end of this month.
The Melonis are not the only ones to have family relationships among the group of founders of the Brothers of Italy. The economic manager is the deputy Marco Osnato, son-in-law of Romano La Russa, brother of Ignazio, president of the Senate and co-founder of Brothers of Italy. Arianna’s husband, and therefore, brother-in-law of the prime minister, Francesco Lollobrigida – distant relative of the diva of the Italian cinema – is one of the heavyweights of the formation and current Minister of Agriculture of the country.
Until now, Meloni’s sister had no institutional responsibility, although she has been working in the background in the Lazio region for more than 20 years. In the face of her criticism, she herself has defended in an interview in Corriere della Sera that she has spent her entire life dedicating herself to politics and the party behind the spotlight. “I joined the MSI when I was 17 years old, I did everything: put up posters, contacted the militants, organized events, and then I started to maintain contacts in the Lazio region with our elected officials or candidates, more recently in the party” , he assured. If until now she had not had a visible role, it was either because “Giorgia was a minister or leader” or because her husband “assumed other positions”. “I was already fine. I’m not interested in appearing, but in working”. What has changed? In her opinion, the Brothers of Italy has grown so much in the last year that she considers that she should put “the need to work for a greater good, sacrificing a lesser good if necessary.” In her case, giving up being “in the shadows”.
The appointment of Arianna Meloni, although striking, is not surprising in an Executive that revolves around the figure of a Meloni who from the outset surrounded herself with people she trusted the most. For years she has managed her political project with a handful of close collaborators, and she transferred this philosophy when she arrived at Palacio Chigi. “This year of government she has taught her one thing: there are few who she can trust,” wrote the critical newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
The premier’s sister could soon go one step further and stand as a candidate for the next European elections in June next year. She has not denied it: she has said that she would prefer not to, but that, if asked, she is “a soldier”. It would be a way for the Brothers of Italy to take the surname Meloni, which gave them such good results in the Italian elections last year, to the electoral posters of an election in which the prime minister is at stake, starting with her influence in Europe of the ultra-conservative wing that he aspires to lead.
