The Journey Within

The Lady Who Needs No Introduction By October 2022, the European political class had spent the better part of a decade explaining why Giorgia Meloni would never become Prime Minister of Italy. She was too provincial, too combative, too rooted in a political tradition the mainstream press had already declared dead. Then she won, walked into the Chigi Palace, and turned out to be one of the more durable leaders the continent has produced in years. The woman from Garbatella who once invented a five-liquor cocktail at a Roman nightclub had quietly become a fixture of European politics. Before we look at the chart, a brief recap of the life it describes: 1977 : Born in Rome on January 15, to a Sardinian father and a Sicilian mother. 1978 : Her father leaves the family for the Canary Islands and never meaningfully returns. 1980 : A candle she is playing with sets fire to the family home. The Melonis lose everything and end up sleeping on mattresses at the grandparents'. Teens : Sh...