Europe vote may tip balance between Meloni's far-right agenda in Italy and mainstream foreign policy

While Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni adopts a reassuring Western-allied foreign policy, cultural wars at home are preserving her far-right credentials heading into a European Parliamentary election, where her neo-fascist-rooted Brothers of Italy party is projected to secure significant gains — and a possible coalition role.

In less than two years leading the EU’s third-largest economy, Meloni has emerged as the most powerful far-right-wing leader in Europe, a position emphasized in a fiery speech in May to a Vox rally in Spain that included French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Hungary's Viktor Orbán and pro-Trump Republicans.

Still, her pro-Ukraine and Israel policies have proven reassuring to centrist American and European allies as Italy prepares to host United States President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven most industrialized nations in late June.

The European elections June 6-9 could begin to tip Meloni’s balancing act.

“I think there are two Melonis, and the Meloni that is getting more attention is the pragmatic, pro-Ukrainian Meloni," said Wolfango Piccoli of the London-based Teneo consultancy. “There is another Meloni, back in Italy, where she is pursuing a clear right-wing agenda on a variety of issues from migration to social-cultural values. The European elections could be a bit of a moment of truth. She has never been forced to take a clear ideological stand.”

After campaigning on an anti-EU platform, Meloni has adjusted her rhetoric as Europe pours more than 210 billion euros ($228 billion) in pandemic recovery funds into Italy. As premier, Meloni has a potential political ally in EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has not ruled out inclusion of Meloni’s party in a grand