“Secret Meloni”, from the “Gabbiani” of Colle Oppio to Palazzo Chigi: the rise of the first female premier

Meloni, Lollobrigida, Fazzolari. Today at the top of political power. Thirty years ago they were just «I Gabbiani». The reconstruction of the “dazzling rise” of the first female prime minister is contained in the book Meloni secret by Andrea Palladino (Ponte alle Grazie), which brings together testimonies, documents, journalistic investigation.

“The Gabbiani group has an incredible story,” says Silvano Moffa, president of the Province of Rome in 1998, when twenty-one-year-old Giorgia Meloni was elected as councilor for the first time. I Gabbiani was born in the early 90s, as the second generation of the Rautianis. They belong to the Colle Oppio section. Among them is the young Giorgia Meloni.

Moffa recalls: «The Gabbianis did not distinguish themselves in terms of political lines, which were substantially the same. They distinguished themselves as a pressure group, in the sense that they had created their own enclave, their own group, which was very narrow, a bit sectarian. They have created parallel structures, an important territorial organization, they have also begun to build a network of relationships in society, they have also created meeting places, with some restaurants, some pubs».

In the provincial elections of 2003 they are a disaster. Moffa is not reappointed, the National Alliance halves the number of elected councilors. Meloni is also not re-elected. But the following year she becomes the leader of Action Youth, the heir organization of the Youth Front. The list with which you won the Viterbo congress is called «Sons of Italy». With her Fazzolari and Lollobrigida, today minister and undersecretary at Palazzo Chigi.

Meloni is supported by Gasparri and La Russa, in a challenge to the last vote with Carlo Fidanza, now a MEP, supported by Alemanno and Storace. In a 2002 document entitled «The community of rebels», the physiognomy of the rebel is outlined who «is not an idiot who speaks like a poor dyslexic, who goes crazy on joints, who forces the red areas (…) but rebels against a lifestyle, to a model of society that flattens consciences».

Two years later, Giorgia Meloni would enter Parliament for the first time.