The longest-running, but for men

The first woman at Palazzo Chigi and a single mother to boot; the Prime Minister to have held the post for the longest uninterrupted period (even if it means standing still). Meloni is right to celebrate; were it not for the fact that she is the only one who can do so. Italian women, less so. Especially if they were hoping that a woman at Palazzo Chigi might mark a change of pace in tackling the gender gap that weighs down every aspect of women’s lives in this country. Instead, after four years in government: one in five women still resigns after the birth of her first child (if she is in work, which only one in two Italian women manages to be); 80 per cent of family carers are still women (and the law on carers has made a mockery of them); ‘Opzione donna’, which was anything but a privilege, has been abolished; equal parental leave was nipped in the bud; nursery places remain insufficient, despite the lowest fertility rate on record (1.14) and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) (perhaps because Meloni cut one billion euros and 100,000 nursery places from the original plan). Meloni, proud of having made it herself, cares so little about whether others can do the same that she risked a government crisis over an amendment to the electoral law which effectively abolished gender alternation on party lists. It even caused an uproar amongst female MPs in the ruling coalition. Meloni was the first and has held office the longest. Hats off to her. But she’s on her own. And as a man.