Italy’s scorching summer singes Giorgia Meloni

ANDREA GIAMBRUNO is a presenter for the TV network founded by the late . On July 18th, as temperatures in parts of Sicily and Sardinia to more than 45°C, he began his daily programme thus: “The news, if such it be, is that in July it will be hot—and in December it’ll probably snow. But, according to the environmentalists, we members of the public are to blame.” Such views are routinely aired in the Italian media. What was striking was that these should have been propagated by a journalist who is the partner of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the father of their child.Italy has suffered more than any other European country except Greece this year from events: not only raging wildfires in the south, but devastating hailstorms and tornadoes in the north that have caused damage costing an estimated €100m ($110m) in the Lombardy region alone. But climate scepticism—prevalent among Ms Meloni’s voters—presents the prime minister with an electoral quandary: a survey last year found the view that climate change is man-made is more widely accepted in Italy, by 82% of people, than in any other European country surveyed (in Norway it was 61%).