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“Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy's election, and is on course to become the country's first female prime minister… Ms Meloni's right-wing alliance - which also includes Matteo Salvini's far-right League and former PM Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia - will take control of both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with around 44% of the vote.” BBC
The right praises Meloni and pushes back against allegations that she is fascist.
“Numerous outlets inform us that the populist right-center coalition, including a party led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has its ‘roots’ in Italy’s postwar fascist movements. In and of itself, this is meaningless. It’s like saying Democrats have their ‘roots’ in preserving slavery and segregation. Meloni has denounced fascism, contending Italy had ‘handed fascism over to history for decades now.’ The National Alliance shed its fascistic views long ago. In the 2000s, its leader Gianfranco Fini visited Yad Vashem in Israel and called Mussolini’s regime ‘absolute evil.’…
“The Italian right will be illiberal within the normal illiberal standards of modern Europe. It will be no more illiberal than ‘democratic’ socialist parties, and no less authoritarian than the present German government, which regularly sends police to break down the doors and arrest citizens for saying stupid things on the internet. The difference is that like Orban, the Italian right promises to use state power to blunt the European left’s agendas on social policy and immigration, rather than use state power to enforce them. And that will be enough reason to call them ‘fascists.’”
David Harsanyi, The Federalist
“Youth unemployment and underemployment in Italy are so chronic that they are driving an emigration crisis. This exacerbates other baleful trends in a nation that has a well-below-replacement-level fertility rate, and that has become the chief landing zone for mass migration from across the Mediterranean… These are problems too big to leave festering for another generation. Italy’s political class — and Europe’s behind it — have been unable to address this interlocking social, economic, and political calamity for decades…
“Undoubtedly, the new Italian government will be lumped in by the usual suspects as another ‘crisis for democracy,’ joining the popularly and fairly elected governments of Poland and Hungary. But the truth is that the center-left-consensus politics of the 1990s are breaking down. Wherever democratic challenge is allowed, it comes. Italy was just the next on the list. It won’t be the last.”
Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review
“Following her victory, a video of her speaking about her values went viral… the overall theme of Meloni’s speech is simple: The left seeks to destroy everything that provides identity to normal people. Whether that be family, religion, or nationality. The goal? To make people cogs in a bureaucratically driven consumer machine. In other words, the vision of the World Economic Forum, where global elites dictate and control a ‘family of nations’ for the ‘betterment’ of the serfs…
“Watching that clip, it’s easy to see why she won. Italians have suffered for years under far-left economic policies, COVID totalitarianism, and a complete loss of their national pride. Meanwhile, EU bureaucrats in [Brussels] have toasted champagne and enjoyed the spoils…
“The voters finally said enough is enough, part of a wider backlash across Europe to the predations and perversions of the modern left. So why does the left hate Meloni so much? Because she’s pro-family, pro-religion, pro-country, and against the transgender lobby. She isn’t a fascist, but she’s a threat to the revolution the left has been waging. For that, she must be demonized and destroyed. Fortunately, she appears ready for the fight.”
Bonchie, RedState
The left is divided about whether Meloni has fascist tendencies, and urges parties on the left to offer alternatives to neoliberal economic policies.
The left is divided about whether Meloni has fascist tendencies, and urges parties on the left to offer alternatives to neoliberal economic policies.
“[Meloni] has never fully disavowed her connection to Italy’s neofascist tradition even as she claims that her party is merely ‘conservative’ and that fascism is a thing of the past… The Brothers of Italy also perpetuates its forebear’s values. In particular, the natalist obsession of Il Duce’s 20-year rule, with its ‘Battle for Births,’ has survived in the Brothers of Italy’s present-day concern about boosting the birth rate, its proposal to link social-welfare assistance to mothers and those engaged in child care, and its attempts to limit reproductive rights…
“[Hillary Clinton recently] remarked on how right-wing parties can sometimes appear better at promoting women. Women like Meloni ‘are protected by patriarchy,’ she said, ‘because they are often the first to support the fundamental pillars of male power and privilege.’ Meloni’s party slogan—‘God, Fatherland, Family’—celebrates those very pillars of power. And it came from Mussolini’s dictatorship.”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, The Atlantic
Others argue, "It would be a stretch to regard Ms. Meloni, who would be Italy’s first female premier, as a fascist. And, having dropped her former admiration for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, she has been unstinting in backing NATO’s support for Ukraine — although the same cannot be said of her probable coalition partners in Italy’s legislature. She has also tempered her erstwhile rhetoric suggesting she would splinter the European Union, possibly because Italy depends on enormous infusions of E.U. pandemic relief funds…
“The lurking danger of a Meloni government is to Europe’s ability to withstand Mr. Putin’s attempts to break Western anti-Kremlin sanctions, using Europe’s dependence on Russian energy exports as leverage. Italy’s economy is chronically anemic, and many Italians will suffer as Moscow’s pressure mounts. That will test Ms. Meloni’s determination to hold the line, especially given that one of her coalition partners, Matteo Salvini of the League party, opposes sanctions, and the other, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is an apologist for the Russian authoritarian. Washington, NATO and the E.U. must use their considerable leverage to ensure Ms. Meloni’s spine remains stiff.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“Italian politics are famously unstable, but what caused this earthquake? In the short term, personal and partisan rivalry was at work. But long-term, in Italy as elsewhere, the economy is not serving ordinary people. The center-left has led the Italian government for much of the past decade but has not been able to deliver fundamental change. Its per capita GDP has not grown for more than 20 years. Immigration and nationalist resentment, combined with more recent privations caused by Russia’s energy boycott and the European Central Bank’s austerity policies, pour oil on the flames…
“At the level of solidarity with Ukraine, the EU has been doing well. It has also promoted a common emergency energy policy. But on the economy, the EU functions as a kind of neoliberal straitjacket, preventing dramatic change. The far right is in danger of emerging as the prime opposition to a resented status quo. The democratic left had better learn how to compete.”
Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
