There seems little doubt now that Giorgia Meloni’s government will survive until 4 September and so become the longest lasting in the history of the Italian Republic. Nearly all of the 69 governments since the fall of the fascist dictatorship in 1945 have lasted little more than one year.

Next year, Meloni’s government also looks well set to become the first to complete a five-year mandate. And it is a pretty reasonable bet, too, that it will be the first ever to be re-elected. A second back-to-back term would mean that Italy’s first female prime minister must surely join the ranks of the great European leaders since the second world war.

Meloni’s critics say she has been all mouth and no trousers. But what she has done, above all, is bring stability to a country that has been a byword for chaos.

Now, however, for the first time, her grip on power is under threat and the Italian left and their many friends in the global media are pumping it for all it is worth.

This threat comes not from the Italian left, whose numerous parties remain incapable of uniting, and lack a compelling narrative or a charismatic leader. No, the threat comes from the right, in the shape of a former parachute regiment general called Roberto Vannacci. He is the new guy riding high in the polls.

General Vannacci is not an extreme right menace – or more right-wing than Meloni, as suggested by the........

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