San Francisco Frontiers - Meloni marks record in power with eye on 2027 elections

"Today, our government becomes the longest-serving in the history of the Italian Republic," Meloni wrote on X.

"I welcome this with gratitude and a strong sense of responsibility. Because stability is not a record to be displayed, but the condition that allows a nation to plan, decide, keep its commitments, and be respected," she added.

Meloni became Italy's first woman prime minister on October 22, 2022 and has been in charge of the same administration for 1,413 days -- one more than billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi managed.

Thousands of people -- many bussed in from other parts of Italy -- gathered in the port for the rally, organised by the 49-year-old's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.

There were food stalls selling sandwiches, crepes and Bari's traditional "Assassin Spaghetti" -- pasta with a spicy, smoky sauce.

Maurizio Cecconelli, 61, a lawyer from Terni in central Italy, said Meloni's government had shown "tangible results".

"Let's hope she gets another five years to achieve all the things she wants," he said.

Salvatore Sinopoli, a 37-year-old engineer from the southern Calabria region, said Meloni had "restored Italy's international position" and improved the labour market.

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

Meloni will address the crowds later, with her deputy prime ministers and coalition partners 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 kicked off with DJ sets.

Speeches focused 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.

Meloni's critics also gathered in Bari for an anti-government demonstration amid a heavy security presence in the city.

The organisers of that rally accused the government of creating a "war and weapons economy" and a "police state" and of fuelling a climate of hate against migrants.

- Far-right challenge -

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.

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 says 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 news conference in Rome on Thursday.

No date has been set for the elections but they are due to be held before the end of next year.

The main current challenge for the government is the rise of former general Roberto Vannacci, whose National Future (FN) party is further to the far right than Meloni's.

The party's spectacular rise has seen it overtake both the League and Forza Italia in the polls.

V.Mitchell--SFF