Who is Giorgia Meloni, the most powerful woman in Italy? In the early 1990s, a young Meloni met an unusual group of neo-fascists, who took inspiration from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and helped her rise to power.

Becoming prime minister in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni seeks to reassure partners in the Europe and pursues a policy of normalisation. As a far right government becomes almost banal in Italy, is this a model other European democracies will follow?