Meloni took office a year ago as the first far-right premier of Italy

Since being sworn in, Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, has confounded Western sceptics.

She has steadfastly backed NATO support for Ukraine, especially on military aid for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion.

While Meloni ran an election campaign ”raging against Europe” and ”promising she would clash with Brussels over budget issues” once in office, she didn’t do either, noted Tommaso Grossi, a policy analyst for the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank.

Fears for Italy’s democracy have proved to be ”exaggerated,” political analyst Massimo Franco said, who noted that Italy’s president serves as a guarantor of the republic’s post-war constitution. “The real risk for Italy is not authoritarian; it’s chaos, it’s an incompetent ruling class.”

In her own words, Meloni’s biggest challenge is illegal migration.

”Clearly, I had hoped to do better on migrants,” she told Italian Rai state TV in an interview marking her year in office. ”The results weren’t what we had hoped to see.”

For more on this story click on the video in the player above to watch Euronews’ Correspondent Giorgia Orlandi’s report.