F.A.Z. Podcast für Deutschland · Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Meloni in Bedrängnis: Ende des rechten Durchmarschs?

·29 min·2 clips

Giorgia Meloni's once-stable power is now crumbling due to Trump ties and a lost referendum.

1. FAZ Podcast für Deutschland host Simon Strauß examines the political pressures facing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a spring 2026 episode framed around the question of whether she will fall or recover. 2. FAZ Italy correspondent Matthias Rüb provides the first analysis segment, describing how Meloni built her reputation on what he calls 'radikaler Pragmatismus' in foreign and migration policy since October 2022. 3. Rüb credits Meloni with making Italy's asylum-processing-in-Albania model into effective EU policy by co-opting the EU rather than confronting it. 4. Italy's government bond spread against Germany narrowed from up to 250 basis points at the time of Meloni's election to just 60 basis points in April 2026, a figure Rüb cites as her most concrete economic achievement. 5. Meloni issued a government statement confirming she will govern until the end of the legislature in autumn 2027, dismissed talk of a cabinet reshuffle, and said 'es wird keinen Rücktritt geben.' 6. A constitutional referendum on separating judicial and prosecutorial career paths was defeated, which Rüb calls a significant reversal because Italian voters treat the 1948 post-fascist constitution as near-sacred. 7. Former prime minister Matteo Renzi, who himself resigned after a lost referendum, warned that 'der Zauber ist weg' for Meloni, making her remaining reform agenda — including a direct prime-ministerial election law — much harder to pass. 8. Meloni's Cultural Minister resigned after a televised apology to his wife over an affair with a younger influencer; Interior Minister Piantedosi faces a similar affair allegation that Meloni is trying to keep depoliticised. 9. Losing Piantedosi would risk Lega's Matteo Salvini reclaiming the Interior Ministry, which Rüb describes as destabilising for the coalition balance. 10. Strauß then plays a recorded interview with Roberto Gualtieri, Social Democrat mayor of Rome and former Finance Minister under Giuseppe Conte, conducted at the Palazzo Senatorio on the Capitoline Hill. 11. Gualtieri acknowledges that Meloni did not implement her original hard-right programme and instead continued many Draghi-era and Conte-era measures, calling this 'nicht schlecht, aber das Minimum.' 12. He charges that Meloni's government invested nothing new in advanced technology, AI, or quantum computing, and undertook no supply-side liberalisation or tax reform. 13. Gualtieri says Italy is paying for this conservatism now that Next Generation EU funds of approximately 200 billion euros are running out and energy costs are rising. 14. He explicitly states: 'We are weaker today than we were three years ago,' despite noting he is glad when Italy does well because it benefits Rome as a city. 15. On EU fiscal policy, Gualtieri argues that the EU's refusal to extend joint debt instruments while simultaneously calling Russian aggression and Trump's America existential threats is 'contradictory.' 16. He references the Draghi report's documented EU investment gap and says Europe must not be forced to choose between joint defence, the welfare state, and climate goals. 17. Rüb assesses Gualtieri as 'der geborene Kandidat' for the Partito Democratico against Meloni, calling party leader Elly Schlein a weak candidate even by PD supporters' own assessment. 18. The conversation between Strauß and Rüb is analytical and slightly playful; Gualtieri's interview section is translated from Italian and more formal, with the register shift noticeable. 19. The episode will interest listeners following Italian or European right-wing politics, EU fiscal debates, or Social Democrat strategy in southern Europe. 20. Listeners seeking domestic German politics or looking for a single focused argument rather than a multi-part roundup may find the format diffuse.

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