Italy’s far-right leader formally asks for mandate to govern

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni says she and her allies have asked the nation’s president to give her the mandate to assemble a new government. Meloni and her allies met briefly with Sergio Mattarella on Friday at the presidential palace. The palace later said that Meloni had been summoned to meet with Mattarella again later in the day, on her own. If Meloni succeeds in forming a government, Italy would have its first far-right-led government since the end of World War II and she would be the first woman to become premier.