Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her allies on Tuesday began what is likely to take weeks to form a new government, with crises looming on several fronts.

Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, which triumphed in Sunday’s elections, has no experience of power but needs to assemble a cross-party team to deal with skyrocketing inflation and energy prices, and relations with a wary Europe.

The 45-year-old hopes to become Italy’s first woman leader but needs her allies, Matteo Salvini’s far-right Lega party and ex-Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, for a majority in parliament.

The breakdown of top posts – notably business, foreign affairs, defense and the interior ministry – will always be political, but now more than ever “depending on expertise,” noted the daily Stampa.

In the past, it took between four and twelve weeks for a new government to take office.

But the first deadline for action is fast approaching, as debt-ridden Italy has until October 15 to submit its draft plan for next year’s budget to Brussels.

President Sergio Mattarella will not begin deliberations on who will lead the new government until the Senate and Chamber presidents have been elected by Parliament, which meets on October 13.

As families and businesses grapple with huge bills made worse by the Ukraine war, sorting out the budget “will be like climbing Everest without oxygen tanks for the new cabinet,” the daily Corriere della Sera said.

During the election campaign, Meloni tried to reassure investors that despite her radical past, she will be a safe pair of hands.

But the interest rate on 10-year Italian bonds rose to its highest level since October 2013 on Tuesday morning.

And the difference between German and Italian interest rates, the closely watched spread, rose above 250 points for the first time since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020.

The European Commission was due on Tuesday to approve the second tranche of the €21 billion post-pandemic recovery funds for Italy, a government source said.

But Meloni has said she wants to renegotiate the deal with Brussels, potentially putting the rest of the fund, worth almost €200 billion, at risk.

Agnese Ortolani, senior Europe analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said she expects Meloni to “continue to reassure markets by choosing an uncontroversial figure for the finance minister role”.

“She will also want to avoid reputational damage by nominating someone who is not perceived by the markets as credible,” she said in a note.

Meloni’s allies have been bidding for important posts, Salvini wants his old job back as interior minister and Berlusconi wants to be president of the Senate.

Their disappointing performance in the polls, with neither of them reaching 10 percent while Brothers of Italy secured 26 percent, means Meloni may already be planning to marginalize them.

Salvini and Berlusconi disagree with Meloni on several fronts, including the supply of arms to Ukraine.

With all the potential friction, winning the election was “almost the easy part,” commented Luciano Fontana, editor-in-chief of the daily Corriere della Sera.

Berlusconi downplayed concerns he might rock the boat on Tuesday, saying his party was ready to compromise “in the interest of the country”.

His ally Antonio Tajani, a former president of the European Parliament, is being tipped as a possible foreign minister, an appointment that could both placate Berlusconi and allay international fears that Meloni’s Eurosceptic populist party plans to fight with Brussels.

Salvini, 49, could prove more difficult. He is currently on trial for allegedly abusing his powers as home secretary in 2019 to block migrants at sea, which could rule out a return to the job.

“Defusing Salvini” without triggering a backlash that could seriously weaken the rising executive is “Meloni’s first test,” Repubblica daily said.