These three women are the most powerful in the EU. They are all heads of far-right parties

Résumé détaillé

Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen and Alice Weidel share fervent nationalist views, but there are stark differences between them ...

The fact that the most powerful women in the EU’s big three are leaders of far-right populist nationalist parties could threaten the future of the European Union.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister since 2022 and co-founder of the neo-fascist Fratelli d’Italia, last month surpassed the record for uninterrupted longevity as an Italian head of government and is poised to win re-election next year.

Marine Le Pen took over her father Jean-Marie Le Pen’s extreme right-wing National Front in 2011. She “de-demonised” the party, changed its name to National Rally (RN) and leads all polls to become France’s next president in 5½ months.

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is the most popular party in Germany, polling at 27-30 per cent compared to 18-23 per cent for the ruling CDU-CSU coalition. Its co-president, Alice Weidel, is the AfD’s candidate to become chancellor in elections due by March 2029. Much of Germany and Europe were stunned when AfD won a regional election in Saxony-Anhalt in September, because Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the regional branch as right-wing extremist.

The three share fervent nationalism and virulent rejection of immigration, especially by Muslims. Though they are seen as populists, Meloni is the only one from a disadvantaged background. Le Pen grew up in a manor west of Paris, waited on by servants who were paid in part with misused EU funds.

Weidel is the most extreme, categorical in her scorn for Europe and admiration for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. But Le Pen is the most dangerous, because of France’s status as a leading power in Europe and its seat on the UN Security Council. French institutions give broad powers to the head of state while Italy’s prime minister is constrained by its president. The power of the German chancellor is limited by the Bundestag and Länder.

Though Le Pen was born in 1968, and Meloni and Weidel in 1977 and 1979, “all three have roots in the fascist movements defeated in the second World…

Weide…

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