ROME: Rightist leader Giorgia Meloni is on Friday expected to be asked to form Italy's new government and become the country's first woman prime minister, after she was summoned for talks by the president.
Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party won an election last month at the head of a coalition including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini's League, is due at the Quirinale palace in Rome, President Sergio Mattarella's office said in a statement.
"We are ready to form a government as quickly as possible," Meloni said earlier on Friday after an initial meeting between the coalition partners and Mattarella.
The new government could be sworn in over the weekend and will be Italy's most right-wing administration since World War Two.
It will also be Italy's 68th government since 1946 and faces daunting challenges, including a looming recession and rising energy bills, as well as presenting a united front in its response to the war in Ukraine.
It will replace a national unity government led by former European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, who attended a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday in one of his last acts as prime minister.
Although the process of putting together a new administration has been rapid by Italian standards, it has exposed tensions in the coalition, with Berlusconi repeatedly appearing to try to undermine Meloni's authority.
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Berlusconi, in a note he left in public view in parliament last week, wrote that he found her "overbearing... domineering... arrogant... offensive".
The 86-year-old set off a fresh political firestorm this week when he told Forza Italia lawmakers that he blamed Ukraine for the war and said he had exchanged gifts and "sweet letters" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meloni subsequently issued a statement saying her administration would be firmly pro-Nato and pro-European. "Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government," she said.
Berlusconi's right-hand man in Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, is expected to be the next foreign minister. He flew to Brussels on Thursday for talks with EU allies and assured them his party condemned Russia's "unacceptable" war of Ukraine.
The crucial economy ministry post is expected to go to Giancarlo Giorgetti, the deputy head of the League and industry minister in Draghi's outgoing unity government.
Meloni will make her first set-piece speech to parliament next week and must win votes of confidence in both chambers before the formalities are complete and she can begin to govern. -- Reuters
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