If Wednesday marked a brutal, undignified end for Mario Draghi’s government, one person who enjoyed watching his downfall from the sidelines was Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, who is in pole position to become Italy’s next prime minister after snap elections this autumn.
As the shenanigans played out in the senate, culminating with three key parties in Draghi’s coalition boycotting a confidence vote and him resigning, Meloni took to the stage in Piazza Vittorio, a square in Rome where Brothers of Italy, the only party to stay out of Draghi’s government, have set up a shop for the month of July, to express her satisfaction.