Meloni joined the Youth Front, the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a far-right political party with neo-fascist roots, in 1992. She later became the national leader of Student Action, the student movement of National Alliance (AN), MSI's legal successor. She was a councillor of the Province of Rome from 1998 to 2002, after which she became the president of Youth Action, the youth wing of AN.