Breaking down POLITICO’s ranking of the most powerful people in Europe.
POLITICO has unveiled its ranking of the 28 most powerful people in Europe.
At the top of the ranking is the most powerful person in Europe: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The rest of the list is divided into three categories: Doers, Disrupters and Dreamers.
The list is dominated by politicians, who take up 20 spots on the list. Politically, the largest groups among them are nationalists and conservatives, with seven entries each.
Power in Europe, as in previous years, is not gender balanced, not racially diverse and not young. The only person under 40 is Arthur Mensch, the French computer scientist challenging ChatGPT’s monopoly on the generative AI market.
Pope Francis is the only non-European member of the ranking. He’s also the most popular personage on social media, with 18.4 million followers on X. That’s six times more than the runner-up, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Check out the full POLITICO 28: Class of 2025, and read the Letter from the Editors for an explanation of the thinking behind the ranking.
