Echoes of Mussolini?
THE success of farRight parties in Italy’s elections has prompted both consternation and congratulations around Europe and the world.
Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) and its allies have won a clear majority in Parliament and the country is set to have its first female prime minister.
The vote comes after Sweden has swung right. Hungary’s democracy has deteriorated under Viktor Orban. Poland’s human rights protections are weak as well.
Ms Meloni cofounded the Brothers in 2014, and its roots go back to the neofascist Italian Social Movement formed after dictator Benito Mussolini’s death in 1945.
She has campaigned on Italy and Italians first, is vehemently antiimmigration from Africa and the Middle East, and is opposed to multiculturalism, abortion, euthanasia and samesex marriages.
She once praised Mussolini, once a prominent Nazi collaborator. She rejected calls to take a tricolour flame associated with fascism from the party logo.
She was sympathetic to Russia’s Vladimir Putin until his Ukraine invasion. She has since supported sanctions on Russia and arms for Ukraine. The leaders of her allied parties, however, have not repudiated their Putin sympathies.
She has been a Eurosceptic and beats the nationalistic drum.
It is no wonder progressive commentators are alarmed. It is also no surprise many United States Republicans are praising her.
All, however, may not be as it appears. Ms Meloni has been regularly claiming her party was not far Right. It was conservative, like the Conservatives of Britain.
It was not fascist at all, she claimed. Meanwhile, a member praising Adolf Hitler was expelled.
She has also backed Nato and has been making positive comments about the European Union After all, she knows Italy relies on billions of euros in EU support.
Italy is also constrained by government debt at 150% of gross domestic product, as well as a complicated system for passing laws and getting things done. She would not, for example, find it as easy as Britain’s Liz Truss to cut taxes.
The Italian constitution is difficult to change as well, and many Italians guard its integrity.
In any event, while the Rightwing party grouping cleaned up a disorganised and divided Left, Italian voters are notoriously fickle.
Ms Meloni’s support rose fast and could collapse just as quickly. Her powerful allies could become restless and make governing difficult.
Despite the clear victory, only a brave person would predict the Meloni Government running the full term. Italy has had more than 70 governments since World War 2, nearly an average of one a year.
Such are Italy’s issues and its decadeslong stagnation that her simplistic and populist solutions will fail in the face of complex problems.
What can she realistically do about the soaring energy costs, the price of pasta or olive oil, especially because of her relative inexperience?
The realities of power and policy in politics and economics could mean she is true to her recent insistence on being conservative and not far Right.
Italy, meanwhile, cannot expect any shortterm advancement on social issues. But Ms Meloni would find it hard to roll back what is already in place.
She is due to become prime minister next month on the centenary of Mussolini’s rise to power.
Hopefully, any echoes back to that time are far off and faint. Hopefully, Ms Meloni proves to be a conservative pragmatist.
And hopefully she feels neither the need nor desire to give succour or support to the neofascist element of the Italian far Right.