Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy's first woman PM

ROME, Oct. 22: Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right populist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, became Italy's first woman prime minister on Friday. The official announcement came after she met with the country's President, Sergio Mattarella, at the Quirinale Presidential Palace here in the afternoon. Meloni received the mandate to form a new cabinet less than a month after her victory in the country's snap election on Sept. 25. Her new cabinet, which will include 22 ministers, will be sworn in on Saturday, Ugo Zampetti, secretary general of the Presidency of the Republic, told reporters. Meloni's FdI party won 26 percent of the vote in September, and she will now lead the country in a right-wing alliance with Matteo Salvini's League party and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia, each of which snagged just over 8 percent. Next week, the new government will face confidence votes in both houses of Parliament. Meloni's government is set to command a comfortable majority in both houses of Parliament (Chamber of Deputies and Senate). The snap election in September was called after Mario Draghi -- an economist and former chief of the European Central Bank -- resigned as prime minister on July 21.