Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni marks three years in office this week. She finds herself in enviable political shape, with the country’s economy improved on several fronts and her popularity high. The days when Italy’s spending largesse and political volatility made it the bane of Europe’s fiscal hawks seem long gone. Today, admirers across the continent are praising the economic results and internal stability that the far-right Meloni has brought about.

In the last two years, Meloni has more than halved Italy’s deficit, which is now on track to sink to less than 3 percent of GDP in 2026. That would allow Italy to exit an excessive deficit procedure that the European Union initiated with the country last year. Italy’s 10-year bond yields—the cost of borrowing money from the government—have dropped on Meloni’s watch and are now virtually at the same level as those of France. The job market is doing relatively well, too. Unemployment, already falling when Meloni took office, has dropped from 8 to 6 percent, creating higher tax revenues.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni marks three years in office this week. She finds herself in enviable political shape, with the country’s economy improved on several fronts and her popularity high. The days when Italy’s spending largesse and political volatility made it the bane of Europe’s fiscal hawks seem long gone. Today, admirers across the continent are praising the economic results and internal stability that the far-right Meloni has brought about.

In the last two years, Meloni has more than halved Italy’s deficit, which is now on track to sink to less than 3 percent of GDP in 2026. That would allow Italy to exit an excessive deficit procedure that the European Union initiated with the country last year. Italy’s 10-year bond yields—the cost of borrowing money from the government—have dropped on Meloni’s watch and are now virtually at the same level as those of France. The job market is doing relatively well, too. Unemployment, already falling when Meloni took office, has dropped from 8 to 6 percent, creating higher tax revenues.

In September, credit rating agency Fitch bumped up Italy’s grade, citing its political stability and improved financial shape. Italians are not used to either. In the five years before Meloni’s election in 2022, the country saw four different coalition governments, and in the last quarter century, Italian public debt has ballooned to well above 130 percent of GDP, the second highest in the eurozone after Greece. Italy’s last right-wing prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, resigned in 2011 amid fears that borrowing costs would spiral out of control.

Meloni’s government is now one........

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