Giorgia Meloni, the right-wing prime minister of Italy, could be set to shake up European politics in a big way. When Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party took power in October 2022, Europe’s political establishment went on high alert at the prospect of a major country being led by a party that openly opposes abortion, the LGBT movement, and illegal migration. Since then, Meloni has managed a delicate balancing act in which she has ceded ground on certain international issues, such as the Ukraine conflict, while growing her clout in European politics — and leveraging this influence to move the establishment to the right.