In an election that many in the mainstream media are hysterically likening to a “return of fascism,” the Italian people delivered a stark anti-European-Union statement. On Sunday, a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party received enough votes to form a government. Meloni and her party are openly skeptical of EU policies.
The snap election was triggered by party infighting, which led to the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government in July.
The Brothers of Italy Party, which Meloni co-founded in 2012, led all vote-getters in a crowded political landscape, gathering 26 percent of the vote nationally. Meloni’s coalition includes the Lega (League) party of Matteo Salvini, which garnered approximately nine percent, and the Forza Italia (Forward Italy) party, considered more moderate than the others, receiving about eight percent of the vote.
A new government will be formed in the coming weeks.
Left-wing forces have seen their numbers dramatically decline since the 2018 election. The center-left Democratic Party scored about 19 percent, with its allies scoring another seven percent altogether. The populist Five Star Movement, which was the dominant party in 2018, saw its numbers decline radically, only receiving about 15 percent of the vote.
Meloni will be Italy’s first female prime minister. She is a fierce defender of the natural idea of marriage between a man and a woman, and would like to see Italians increase their birthrate rather than populate the country with more immigrants. She is anti-abortion, and against the teaching of so-called gender ideology in schools.
“It’s a victory I want to dedicate to everyone who is no longer with us and wanted this night…. Starting tomorrow we have to show our value … Italians chose us, and we will not betray it, as we never have,” she said Monday.
Meloni dedicated the victory to “all the militants, managers, supporters and every single person who — in these years — has contributed to the realization of our dream, offering soul and heart spontaneously and selflessly.”
“We won’t betray your trust. We are ready to lift Italy up.”
At a recent event, Meloni laid out some of her positions while lamenting that some in Italy have referred to her and her party as “embarrassing.”
“I say the losers are those with nothing better to do than come here and insult us while we talk about what we can do for the Italian family. But above all I say the embarrassing ones are not us. The embarrassing ones are those who support practices like ‘womb for rent,’ abortion at nine months and blocking the development of children with drugs at eleven years of age. That is embarrassing,” she said.
So, naturally, the Left and the EU see her and her party as “fascist.”
Sunday’s election represents a huge shift in Italian politics. In 2018, Brothers of Italy received only 4.5 percent of the vote.
Meloni will take over the government of a founding member of the EU, the bloc’s third largest economy.
Meanwhile, EU leaders have promised to rein in any untoward behavior of the new Italian government. In a chilling warning days before the election, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of consequences should the new Italian government not toe the EU line.
Speaking at Princeton University in the United States on Thursday, von der Leyen issued a veiled threat to any right-wing Italian government.
“My approach is that whatever democratic government is willing to work with us, we’re working together,” the European Commission president said. “If things go in a difficult direction, I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools.”
Von der Leyen didn’t expand on what those “tools” may be.
Other European leaders were slightly less vicious than von der Leyen. French President Emmanuel Macron, who survived a right-wing challenge of his own from Marine Le Pen in April, issued a conciliatory message.
“The Italian people have made a democratic and sovereign choice. We respect it,” Macron said. “As a neighbor and friend, we must continue to work together. It’s as Europeans that we will succeed in overcoming our joint challenges.”
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Meloni’s win is how quickly mainstream media in the United States were to cast her victory as Benito Mussolini’s second coming. CNN called the coming government “the most far-right government since the fascist era of Benito Mussolini,” and The Atlantic referred to Meloni’s election as “The Return of Fascism in Italy.”
It’s almost as if the American Left wants there to be a fascist government in Europe.
