Arianna Meloni, the brusque older sister of Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has been in politics since she was 17 years old, but she has never sought the spotlight. “I am not running for office” is one of her favorite phrases. But now that Georgia’s right-wing government is in trouble, Arianna has stepped out to help her sister stay in office.
Giorgia’s leadership is threatened by increasingly truculent government allies, so Arianna is overseeing the backroom process of reverting their post-Fascist party to its more tribal roots. Giorgia, who leads the Fratelli d’Italia party (Brothers of Italy), had come into office promising to tame Italy’s far right into a more palatable conservative force. But now it’s the sisters of Italy who are making their power grab.
