A thousand days of Meloni's government: extremism muted and responsibility, citizens have noticed.

Judging the Meloni government, now in its 1000th year, obviously depends on the criteria or indicators adopted. Governments are called upon to pursue the interests of citizens, all citizens. But when ministers swear, upon taking office, "to be faithful to the Republic, to loyally observe its Constitution and laws, and to exercise their functions in the exclusive interest of the nation," they evidently have an idea of what the nation's interests are that isn't always shared by everyone. Certainly, the primary goal of a government's action shouldn't be to be re-elected. This isn't easy in practice; it's actually the weak point of democracies. These general considerations don't preclude us from seeking some objective indicators to understand whether the Meloni government has pursued the interests of the nation as a whole and whether Italy is better off today than it was when it took office.

The government had inherited a disastrous public finance situation from the super bonus, and only the arrival of a figure like Draghi had prevented it from seeing its immediate, dramatic consequences for financial markets. But it was the Meloni government that decided, and smoothly guided, the exit from this rule and initiated a prudent and serious fiscal policy that restored financial markets' confidence in Italian debt. It did so at a time when inflation was undermining fixed incomes and when the initial advantage that inflation had brought to public budget balances was fading and the backlash of rising costs on public spending was beginning to take hold. Faced with a European economy held back by the restrictive policies of the ECB, which belatedly engaged in the fight against inflation, it carefully managed the fiscal lever to use scarce resources to support lower incomes. Inflation also fell because no distributional conflicts arose. The result is that today the Italian economy is doing better than those of most major European countries . Real incomes have begun to recover what was lost to inflation, and, most importantly, employment is growing. The lack of signs of an increase in productivity, partly due to the weaknesses in the methods used to measure this indicator, does not detract from the fact that rising employment is a sign of inclusion and strengthening social unity, as well as greater economic well-being. But it is in Italy's international positioning that the Meloni government has so far demonstrated objective success and solidity.

It exercised its democratic right to dissent in the formation of the current European governance, whose weakness seems confirmed, but it subsequently loyally collaborated in maintaining European unity. It firmly maintained its pro-Atlantic stance and its support for Ukraine during its attack, and in its confrontation with the United States, it appears to be one of the most stable and responsible European governments, compared to the bellicose impotence of weak governments like France and Britain. It has maintained balanced relations with the rest of the world and has emphasized the centrality of Africa for Europe. Some would have liked a more rapid justice reform, but here too, as with the immigration issue, the process is responsibly and without extremism. Are the nation's interests being pursued? The judgment should be made by citizens rather than commentators, and according to the polls, it is not negative.

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