WashPo never ceases to amaze:
What are they even trying to say with this? How come she’s “probably” the first female prime minister? She either is or she isn’t. It shouldn’t be hard to ascertain.
Given that today is probably Wednesday and it’s probably September 28…
Clarissa's Blog 
A quick perusal of Wikipedia and they could know for sure that there’s no probably about it.
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“How come she’s “probably” the first female”
It’s probably just bad writing but there are other possibilities….
Is there a delay in Italy between elections and swearing in the new government?
Maybe she hasn’t taken office yet (and there are probably some inside and outside Italy who are hoping to prevent that from happening.)
And is there a byline? If not the story was written by someone in the Philippines and/or a computer… (I’m serious, a lot of US “journalism” writing has been outsourced to the third world and/or computer programs – those are both things that happen).
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I think it’s much worse. This is WashPo, so the word “female” is always fraught. Saying that she’s for sure the first female means making intolerable assumptions about the gender of previous prime ministers.
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” the first female means making intolerable assumptions”
I was wondering a bit about that too, just waiting for some article about how Giacomo Lasagnarelli who served as PM for 17 days between governments collapsing in 1978 sometimes wore pink and kept fresh flowers on… their desk so tots obs, a woman… could it be any clearer?
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It’s not that deep. The prime minister isn’t directly elected, he or she is appointed by the parliament after negotiations have concluded between the parties that are to form the next government. It’s not set in stone which parties those will be and who will be put forward as prime minister… but it’ll probably be Meloni.
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Yes, that’s how I would read it. I’m not sure exactly how this works in Italy, but I follow politics in a couple of European countries and in those there is a period of coalition negotiations following the elections. It is usually clear who will become prime minister, but it isn’t a completely done deal until the coalition negotiations are finished and parliament has met.
That sentence would have been better as “… people are reminded that she is expected to become Italy’s first female prime minister when parliament meets on (insert date).”
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@monojin
I’m sorry to have to correct you (I’m writing from Italy): it is the President of the Italian Republic who appoints the President of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to the prime minister in other countries) as well as ALL the other ministers, including vice-ministers and under-secretaries (yes, the lot!). Parliament approves (or rejects, as the case may be) the Presidential appointee through a vote of confidence.
The WaPo passage is bad English, bad grammar, bad thinking. I wonder whether the person (or the computer program) who wrote the article (journalist would be a big word here) is advancing doubs as to Giorgia Meloni’s womanhood… One never know these days in the Anglosphere, what is a woman?
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…even if you think that invalidates my colloquial use of the word “appoint”, it most definitely has no bearing on “bad English, bad Grammar” or “bad thinking” in the article, nor “casting doubt on Meloni’s womanhood”. Trans people have become such a bug bear on this blog that they’re now shoehorned into every discussion with perplexing obsessiveness. It’s all rather boring.
Be careful
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It’s strange that with all the voluminous discussion of the issue on this blog you managed to miss the fact that it isn’t trans people but the idiot journalists at WashPo that we are ridiculing.
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@monojin
“Be careful” sounds almost like a threat. I’m not sure what I should be careful about, though there’s NO need for you to explain. Clarissa got my point perfectly, you misunderstood it totally but I did have misgivings when I wrote my correction. Still, I don’t think I need your permission to criticise transgenderism as an ideology.
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There are places in the world where police interrogates people over comments on social media that can be construed as unsupportive of the gender ideology. People have really lost their marbles over this.
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Craziness intensifies a female “non-binary” actor brags about her ability to play…. women….
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/emma-darcy-house-of-the-dragon-interview-b2173714.html
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Who knows, given the large number of PMs Italy had since 1945, it is not out of the realm of possibility that at least a couple of them identified as a woman…
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“given the large number of PMs Italy had since 1945, it is not out of the realm of possibility that at least a couple of them identified as a woman…”
It’s my understanding that many or most (or maybe…. all) of them were addressed as “she” so it sounds like maybe Meloni would be (one of) the first non-trans Italian MPs….
It makes you think…..
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There were so many of them that I wouldn’t be shocked if a few identified as an elephant. 🙂
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