Meloni celebrates her Italian government's longevity during party rally in Bari

BARI, Italy (AP) — Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni celebrated a milestone for her government on Friday, telling a rally of supporters in the southern city of Bari to argue that four years of political stability have strengthened Italy at home and abroad.

Her administration has become the longest-serving single government of Italy’s republican era, reaching 1,414 consecutive days in office and surpassing the 1,412-day record set by Silvio Berlusconi ’s second government from 2001 to 2005.

Speaking to supporters, Meloni cast the longevity record as evidence of the strength and cohesion of her right-wing coalition.

“It is no coincidence that the three longest-serving governments in the history of the Italian Republic are all center-right governments,” she said.

“Stability is our first great reform,” Meloni added, arguing that political continuity had enabled her government to pursue economic and foreign policy goals that might have proved difficult under Italy’s traditionally short-lived administrations.

She credited her coalition with boosting employment, supporting families and businesses, managing public finances and restoring Italy’s credibility abroad.

In one of the most personal moments of the speech, Meloni reflected on the challenges of governing and fighting resistance to change.

“There were days when it felt like I was swimming through glue, but I never gave up and I do not intend to start now,” she said, prompting chants of “Giorgia, Giorgia.”

The rally highlighted a central argument Meloni is expected to make ahead of the next election in 2027: that stability has allowed her government to achieve results and credibility abroad.

Vera Capperucci, professor of history of European political parties at Rome’s LUISS University, called the Bari event a “necessary act,” noting the government’s defining characteristic has been its foreign policy.

“Meloni has built credibility with European partners while maintaining Italy’s Atlantic alliances, defying concerns when she took office that her government would pursue a more confrontational course toward Brussels,” she said.

The government's achievement caps a political transformation that has seen the Italian leader move from outsider to establishment figure since becoming Italy’s first female prime minister in 2022.

Initially viewed cautiously by some European allies and financial markets because of her party’s postwar neo-fascist roots, she maintained support for Ukraine , worked within European institutions and cultivated close ties with Western allies.

Supporters point to more than 1 million additional jobs, lower unemployment, tighter public finances and a decline in migrant arrivals as evidence that the unusual period of continuity has produced tangible results.

Critics counter that Italy’s longstanding problems, including weak productivity growth, low salaries and inefficiencies in public services, remain largely unresolved.

Among supporters gathered in Bari, the longevity record itself was viewed as an achievement.

Marco Macrì, a 34-year-old Forza Italia supporter from Alliste, a small town near Lecce, said Meloni had helped hold together the center-right coalition that emerged after Berlusconi’s death.

“Now, with Giorgia, we are all united under one roof ... with different symbols but part of one family,” he said.

The durability of Meloni’s coalition has been a rarity in postwar Italy, where governments have often fallen before the end of their mandates.

No administration has completed a full five-year term without interruption. While Meloni now leads the longest-lasting single government of the republican era, Berlusconi remains Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister when time served across multiple governments is combined.

As Meloni’s government celebrates setting the longevity record, the political question is shifting from whether it can survive to whether voters believe it has done enough to merit another term.

Opposition leaders say Meloni’s government has yet to find concrete ways to stimulate long-term economic growth beyond just controlling public debt and state deficits.

They also accuse the Meloni’s coalition of having further cut financial resources dedicated to health services and education.

— Zampano reported from Rome.