Giorgia Meloni: The long climb to Italy's political summit

Italy's newly appointed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks to the media following a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy October 21, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

ROME (Reuters) - In 2019, Giorgia Meloni made a speech that has come to define her: "I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian, and you can't take that away from me," she told cheering supporters in Rome.

Fast forward three years, and the nationalist leader can now also say she is Italy's first female prime minister.