Caitlin Kilpatrick
As Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party triumph in elections, many view the first female Prime Minister’s populist rise as disappointing, but not surprising.
Who is Italy’s new PM?
Giorgia Meloni is nothing if not a career politician. She began her campaign in the youth branch of the Italian Social Movement or National Alliance, a group of far-right adolescents who still carry relics of Mussolini-era politics such as the slogan “God, Family, Homeland”. In 2012 she cofounded the Brothers of Italy Party (FDI), becoming its leader less than two years later. The FDI grew in popularity in 2016 after its public protests against Syrian migration to Italy. In the years since, Meloni has openly opposed gay marriage, abortion, and euthanasia. She has been accused of Islamophobia in her anti-immigration rhetoric.
Italy’s first female PM disagrees with her characterisation as a neofascist and has promised to “govern for all“. In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, she stated that “There is no connection and we are not fascists” insisting that the social movement died in Italy 30 years before she was born. However, her close relationship with Victor Urban, the populist leader of Hungary, and her hints toward a more relaxed relationship with Putin’s Russian Regime suggest a doctrine that has all the elements of fascism without the title.
How did she win?
A few things fell in Meloni’s favour to help this win. Firstly, her predecessor publicly lost the support of his party. Italy has struggled to form a cohesive government since the 2018 elections seeing Matteo Salvini resign from leadership and his successor Mario Draghi struggling to gain the support of his party members.
Secondly, the modern Italian government is not exactly new to right-wing populism. Prior to Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, the nation’s most successful party was the Five Star Movement party which aligned itself with the anti-establishment rhetoric of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro.
Lastly, Italy’s voting system appears to have worked in the new PM’s favour. The Governo Italiano works on a bicameral system with the senate and chamber having an equal influence on the passing of laws. Two-thirds of the chamber seats are assigned proportionally with the remaining third elected by first-past-the-post (similar to the British system). This split system lends largely to member voting and most Italians seek to identify with party politics rather than individual representatives. Meloni’s popularity would subsequently help her party gain a higher majority of seats.
Why is this concerning?
The public response to Meloni’s win has come thick and fast with French PM Élisabeth Borne releasing a statement insisting human rights and abortion access are long-held ‘European values‘ in the wake of the win. The ardent success of Meloni’s party is concerning because it may be reflective of the rest of Europe. Italy has long served as an ideological predictor for its fellow mainland European countries; it adopted fascism long before the Nazis.
Ideologies like the Brothers of Italy’s have been seen elsewhere in mainland Europe, particularly in Hungary, Poland, and France with Marine Le Pen’s National Front. Populist, far-right ideologies are easily spread as economies struggle; it can be expected that more and more people will start to be convinced by them. Meloni’s leadership sets a precedent that could have major implications if replicated anywhere else in Europe; it sees a leader who has openly opposed abortion and LGBTQ rights, and been ambiguous in her denouncement of Putin’s regime gaining essential power.
Additionally, we can not underestimate the importance of Italy as a player in European Politics. They have strong ties to Libya and Russia, both important regimes in modern politics. They also receive the largest amount of funding from the EU’s COVID-19 recovery plans. All of which is to say this win, though not surprising, may have major implications on European relations.
Featured image courtesy of Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
CaitlinKilpatrick
I'm Caitlin (she/her), a recent journalism graduate with a keen interest in current affairs. I write mainly about international politics, human rights and dabble in entertainment.
Fantastic and very informative read .