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ROME — For decades, Italian politics has been defined by rapid government turnover, with short tenures and collapsed coalitions the norm rather than the exception. For most of her time in office, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s perceived political success has been framed less by transformative policy wins and more by her uncanny ability to stay in power. That narrative reached a turning point this Thursday, when Meloni’s right-wing administration hit 1,413 days of uninterrupted rule — surpassing the 2001-2005 tenure of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to become the longest-serving unbroken Italian government since World War II. Meloni and her conservative Brothers of Italy party will mark the milestone Friday with a large campaign rally in the southern city of Bari, kicking off a push to secure a second mandate in national elections due no later than December 2027. When Meloni first took office in October 2022, she made history as Italy’s first female prime minister, leading the first Italian government helmed by a party with neo-fascist roots. Across European capitals and global financial markets, her rise sparked deep unease, with many observers bracing for a Euroskeptic, populist shift that would upend Italy’s long-standing alliances. In the years since, however, Meloni has governed as a pragmatic moderate, upholding Italy’s steadfast military and political support for Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion, working collaboratively within European Union institutional frameworks, and committing to strict European fiscal discipline. Her cordial relationship with former U.S. President Donald Trump has also emerged as a notable asset in her foreign policy portfolio. At a time when political upheaval has toppled governments across Western Europe — from the UK to France — Meloni has kept her original three-party coalition fully intact for nearly four years, an unprecedented achievement in modern Italian politics and the core foundation of her reelection campaign. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, a close ally of Meloni, praised her relentless commitment to governance in an interview with the Associated Press, noting that few Italian politicians have matched her work ethic and meticulous attention to detail, and that these efforts have earned her growing international credibility, even if domestic progress has been harder to nail down. “I know few people so determined, so hardworking, so precise, so meticulous, who have sacrificed both their human and private spheres in order to serve the institutions,” Crosetto said from his ministry office. “For this she is now reaping exactly what she deserves in terms of international credibility. She is not reaping the same on the Italian level.” Today, there is no longer any debate over whether Meloni is capable of governing. The central question facing voters ahead of the next election is whether her administration can point to enough tangible progress to earn a second full term. Meloni still has her sights set on another historic milestone that Berlusconi never quite claimed: a full uninterrupted five-year term, a mark that has eluded every post-war Italian government. One of Berlusconi’s mandates was cut just two days short of the full five-year threshold after he resigned following poor regional election results. Meloni and her supporters point to a series of concrete domestic wins: tighter public finances, the rollback of unsustainable costly policies, the creation of more than 1.2 million new jobs, and an overall unemployment rate that has fallen below 6%, a historic low. They also highlight a sharp drop in irregular migrant arrivals along Italy’s Mediterranean coast, a key campaign promise from 2022. “Duration is not synonymous with results … but these are important ones,” Crosetto argued. When defending her administration’s economic record at a recent labor event, Meloni emphasized that her pro-business policy approach had delivered tangible progress for Italian workers. “The government’s strategy has focused on supporting those who create wealth and jobs … we have reached a record high in employment,” she said. But critics, both from the opposition and on Meloni’s own political right, push back on these claims, arguing that Italy’s most persistent structural problems remain largely unaddressed. Stagnant productivity, a deepening demographic decline, and long-standing inefficiencies in the healthcare, education, and public administration sectors have seen little meaningful reform under Meloni’s government, even as soaring inflation and high cost of living continue to strain household budgets. “The Meloni government has been certainly stable and long-running, but it hasn’t achieved much in terms of structural reforms,” noted political analyst and pollster Lorenzo Pregliasco. Opposition leaders echo that assessment, arguing that beyond bringing public debt and deficit levels under control, Meloni’s government has failed to deliver the sustained long-term economic growth Italy needs. Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and a potential 2027 election rival, said that the government’s celebration of its longevity rings hollow for ordinary Italians grappling with rising costs. “The government is celebrating, but Italians are not,” Conte said in a recent speech outside parliament. Many analysts agree that Meloni’s strongest and most consequential achievements have come on the international stage, rather than at home. When she took office, Italy was widely labeled as Europe’s “black sheep” prone to political and economic instability; today, that reputation has largely faded, argues Stefano Manzocchi, an international economics professor at Rome’s LUISS University. Meloni’s evolution from a nationalist outsider to a respected mainstream European leader has reassured both global investors and fellow European leaders, easing the fears that greeted her 2022 election victory. Her skill for diplomatic balancing was on full display during a recent public exchange with Trump, after the former U.S. president claimed she had “begged” him for a photo during a 2019 G7 summit in France. Meloni fired back with a blunt, public rebuke: “Italy doesn’t beg.” The moment won her widespread support from Italian voters, who saw it as proof she could maintain close ties to Washington while still forcefully defending Italy’s and Europe’s interests. “I like Meloni, I like her character because she is authoritative and doesn’t let anyone walk on her,” said David Del Sarto, a 52-year-old Rome taxi driver. Yet Meloni’s shift toward the political mainstream to secure stability and international credibility has created new vulnerabilities, particularly on her right flank. By pairing traditional nationalist positions on migration and national identity with pragmatic, moderate governing tactics, Meloni has helped accelerate the mainstreaming of hard-right politics across Europe, notes Johns Hopkins University international relations professor Nathalie Tocci. Once sidelined and viewed with suspicion by European political establishments, nationalist conservative parties now hold growing influence in national governments and EU institutions. Meloni’s supporters frame this evolution as proof that nationalist conservatives can govern responsibly while upholding democratic institutions and Western alliance commitments. But critics on the far right see her moderation as a betrayal of core campaign promises. The most high-profile challenge has come from retired army General Roberto Vannacci, who has launched his own political party to challenge Meloni from the right. Vannacci, who is known for hard-line stances on immigration and national identity, argues that Meloni abandoned the combative populist agenda that energized her original base, instead adopting a moderate, institution-friendly image to win approval from European and U.S. allies. Polling suggests Vannacci’s new movement could siphon off a meaningful share of conservative voters and lawmakers who believe Meloni moderated too far in her pursuit of political longevity. For Tocci, the legacy of Meloni’s historic tenure will ultimately hinge on what she has to show for four years of unbroken stability heading into the next election. “If you have five years in office and not much to show when you go back to voters, it can weigh against you,” she said.

This summer, life for ordinary Russians has been upended by a wave of cross-border drone attacks originating from Ukraine, turning what were once routine daily activities into stressful, uncertain experiences and bringing the 4-and-a-half-year-old conflict in Ukraine directly into Russian homes. Long, winding lines at gas stations have become a common sight across the country, turning a quick fill-up into a hours-long ordeal. Thousands of commercial flights have been canceled, delayed or redirected, leaving vacationing travelers stranded. Even online shopping has been disrupted, after drone strikes set major e-commerce fulfillment warehouses ablaze. Data compiled by the Associated Press from Russia’s own Defense Ministry shows that between June and August, Russian air defense systems intercepted more than 43,300 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula — a sharp, five-fold increase from the roughly 7,700 drones intercepted during the same three-month period last year. While many drones were shot down, dozens successfully reached their targets, hitting critical energy infrastructure, logistics hubs and commercial facilities across a vast geographic stretch of Russia, from the outskirts of Moscow in the west to Siberian cities like Omsk in the east. For retiree Margarita Terekhova, the disruption is impossible to ignore. “We were living a normal life, and then suddenly it’s like this,” she said, describing the multi-hour waits she endured to refuel her car in Moscow amid a nationwide fuel shortage triggered by repeated drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, a crisis that stretched well into August. As the summer draws to a close and the country prepares for its first national parliamentary election since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, scheduled for September 18 to 20, the growing public awareness of the war’s domestic consequences has emerged as an unexpected political challenge for the Kremlin. The election, for seats in the State Duma, is held in a tightly controlled political environment that severely restricts opposition participation, leaving little doubt about the final outcome. But political analysts warn that even in this controlled system, the shifting public mood creates the potential for unexpected political volatility. “Elections are a time when people should reflect on themselves, the country, where it’s going and what to do about it,” said Nikolay Petrov, a senior research fellow at the NEST Centre, an organization founded by exiled Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Even in a strictly regulated political landscape, Petrov noted, “things that are unexpected, inconvenient (and) painful for the authorities” can still emerge. The current wave of attacks began on June 3, just as President Vladimir Putin’s signature annual economic forum got underway in St. Petersburg, when a drone strike hit an oil terminal just outside the city. In the months that followed, Ukraine expanded its campaign, targeting oil refineries, logistics centers, and the large warehouses of Russia’s two leading e-commerce retailers, Wildberries and Ozon, across the country from the Urals to Siberia. Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center, Russia’s leading independent polling firm, told the Associated Press that the expanded scope and increasing frequency of the strikes has shocked much of the Russian public, becoming the dominant topic of public conversation for the entire summer. Despite Russian government restrictions on publishing imagery of the drone attacks and their damage, social media has been flooded with user-generated content: videos of endless lines at gas stations, posts from stranded travelers, and emotional accounts from small business owners whose entire inventory was destroyed in the warehouse fires. While the initial public shock has eased in recent weeks, long-term polling data tracked by the Levada Center shows a clear downward trend in public sentiment that has been building since last year. Assessments of Russia’s overall economic situation have worsened steadily, and public approval ratings for top political leaders have declined. Putin’s historically high approval rating, for example, has fallen to 76% as of August 2026, down from 87% in September 2025. Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd., a business consultancy that operates in Moscow, said widespread complacency about the war that held for much of the past four years has faded, and public awareness of the conflict’s costs has grown sharply. “People are grumbling more, they’re talking more,” Weafer said, noting a striking level of pessimism about the prospect of the war ending soon, particularly among Russia’s business community. Compounding this public anxiety are persistent rumors that the Kremlin plans to launch a new round of military mobilization after the election, echoing the widely unpopular 2022 mobilization that drafted 300,000 Russian men into the military. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly claimed Putin is planning a new mobilization, a charge the Kremlin has dismissed as disinformation. But the persistent rumors have already driven many young Russian men to leave the country. A 23-year-old Muscovite, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told AP she and her husband left Russia last month out of fear he would be drafted. She also described the constant fear triggered by the drone attacks, saying many Russians now feel war exhaustion, because the conflict can now disrupt “the life of any person in any corner of the country.” Volkov noted that anxiety over a new mobilization has lurked in the background of Russian public life for years, but flared up again after U.S.-led peace efforts stalled, leaving no clear path to end the conflict. “People don’t want (the conflict) to expand and more people to be dragged into it against their will, and this breeds certain concern, anxiety,” he said. So far, analysts agree, this growing public discontent and anxiety has not translated into large-scale anti-war protests, public unrest, or a coordinated protest vote large enough to alter the outcome of the parliamentary election. But the shift in mood has still forced the Kremlin to adjust its political strategy ahead of the vote, as authorities work to prevent any public debate about the war from undermining the narrative of stability and control they hope the election will project. A recent example illustrates this dynamic: Yabloko, Russia’s long-time liberal opposition party that runs on a platform of ending the war, was initially allowed to appear on the national ballot. Young party supporters flooded social media with campaign videos, and the party’s anti-war message resonated with many voters. But on August 10, Russia’s Supreme Court removed Yabloko from the national ballot, restricting the party to only running in individual single-member constituencies. Despite the ban, Kirill Goncharov, head of Yabloko’s Moscow office, told reporters that the party had already received 8,000 new membership applications, adding to its existing base of roughly 4,000 members. “The context of the summer of 2026 is that there is a demand for peace,” Goncharov said. Petrov explained that Yabloko’s unexpected popularity, particularly among young voters, “upended the Kremlin’s calculation” of allowing the party a small spot on the ballot to act as a safety valve for public discontent. Tatiana Stanovaya, a scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the removal of Yabloko makes clear that Russian authorities are unwilling to allow the election campaign to become an open debate “for and against peace.” For the Kremlin, Petrov explained, the primary goal of the election is not to produce a preordained result — which is already guaranteed by the state’s control over all major political parties — but rather to demonstrate broad public legitimacy for Putin’s rule. “Elections, like in Soviet times, should demonstrate the complete loyalty of all citizens,” he said, adding that the vote is intended to send a signal that Putin and the Kremlin have the situation fully under control, and that the Russian people are ready to follow whatever direction the authorities choose. Ordinary Russians interviewed by AP this week acknowledged that they still enjoyed small, happy moments over the summer, but nearly all described living with the constant disruption and uncertainty caused by the drone attacks. Natalya Bazhenova, a resident of Chita in Siberia, told AP she waited two full days in line just to fill her car with gasoline during a recent trip, and while traveling near the Ukrainian border in the Voronezh region, she received constant mobile alerts warning of incoming drone attacks. Ksenia Smirnova said her family canceled a planned flight to a Black Sea resort and is instead traveling by train to avoid the risk of flight cancellations or delays. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doubled down on the drone campaign, issuing an ominous warning to civilian airlines operating in Russia that the risks will only continue. “Although the Russian authorities are not properly informing people about this, Russian airspace will effectively be closing — the war started by Russia is closing its skies,” Zelenskyy said. “For now, the skies over Russia are for drones — not for civilian aviation.” Ukrainian officials have framed the cross-border drone campaign as “long-range sanctions,” designed to increase pressure on the Kremlin to end the war, and have made clear they intend to continue expanding the strikes even as Russia intensifies its own bombardment of Ukrainian territory.