San Francisco Frontiers - Italy's Meloni throws party to celebrate record in power

Italy's first leader will have been in charge of the same administration for 1,413 days -- one more than billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi managed -- despite crises within the other parties in her governing coalition.

Italy has had 68 governments in 80 years. Past governments were toppled by crises and defections which Meloni has so far managed to avoid.

Some 80 coaches will transport supporters to the capital of the southern Puglia region for a shindig thrown by Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, in an area of the port that can host up to 10,000 people, organizers say.

Meloni will address the crowds in the early evening, with her deputy prime ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani expected to appear via video link for an event that effectively doubles as an election rally ahead of the 2027 vote.

Under the official slogan "Il Governo piu stabile, l’Italia piu forte" ("The Most Stable Government, the Strongest Italy"), festivities will kick off with traditional Puglian light shows and DJ sets.

Speeches will focus on the government's achievements in just under four years in power, from over one million extra people in employment to a 21-billion-euro ($24-billion) reduction in personal income taxes.

Debt-laden Italy's fiscal stability has greatly improved -- although critics say the stability has failed to translate into growth.

"Have wages increased? No. Petrol costs more, job insecurity has increased, people are retiring less and the healthcare system is functioning less effectively," Maurizio Landini, head of the CGIL trade union, said ahead of the party.

- Security, migration -

Meloni says Rome's influence on the world stage has grown, despite an early friendship with US President Donald Trump falling spectacularly apart after she chastised him for attacking the pope.

All together her coalition -- which includes the far-right, anti-immigrant League and right-wing Forza Italia -- has passed some 300 laws and decrees, the majority tackling "security" threats, from petty criminals to ravers and climate protesters.

The Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, won the 2022 election on a pledge to tackle illegal migration and boasts that its policies have cut migrant arrivals by 80 percent.

But listing accomplishments will not be enough.

Meloni "will also have to say how she intends to use these last months ahead of the vote -- a very interesting question", Flavia Perina, an editorialist with La Stampa daily, told a press conference in Rome on Thursday.

As food trucks serve Bari's traditional "Assassin Spaghetti" -- pasta with a spicy, smoky sauce -- to the party goers, Meloni's critics will be gathering across the city's historic centre for an anti-government demonstration.

Its organizers accuse the government of creating a "war and weapons economy" and a "police state" and of fuelling a climate of hate against migrants.

Such a climate has favoured the rise of a challenger not invited to the celebrations -- a former general with a party even further to the far right than Meloni, which on its stellar rise has overtaken both the League and Forza Italia in the polls.

A.Evans--SFF