Giorgia Meloni, the favourite to lead Italy's next government, has made no secret of her passion for fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien, whose classic The Lord of the Rings has long been a favourite of Italy’s post-fascist right – despite the British author’s distaste for extremist politics.
When Meloni was first elected to cabinet in 2008, becoming Italy’s youngest-ever minister at 31, she vowed she would not be corrupted by the “ring of power” – a reference to the ultimate prize at the heart of Tolkien’s works. Later that year, she posed for a magazine profile next to a statue of Gandalf, the bearded wizard who roamed Tolkien’s fictional Middle Earth.
