The new far-right prime minister appropriates words like homeland, freedom and treason
Politics is rhetorical since an audience had to be convinced. They have known this in Italy since the days of the Ancient Rome and this is what the far-right Giorgia Meloni, the new prime minister of the transalpine country, has learned. Thus, in addition to conquer public space -from the street to the institutions-, is also trying colonize the language, seizing powerful words that swarm and are repeated in their speeches, but also creating a jargon destined to mask their ideology political.
Homeland, freedom, betrayal. There are many examples. In the first week of her mandate, the most obvious case was that of the nickname that he has chosen to refer to her: “the President of the Council of Ministers“. This is how the Italian ministries should officially call it from now on, finally clarified an official note released on Friday, after for days in the press releases of Palazzo Chigi (the seat of the Italian Government) it appeared the masculine gender of the article and the noun of the position held by the first woman to obtain the position in the history of the country.
Which, unsurprisingly, not only caused the anger of numerous feministsbut also forced intervene at the Crusca Academy, the national institute for the safeguarding of Italian. Calling yourself that is “a linguistic preferenceperhaps today a minority, related to belonging to other generations, or linked to a conscious ideological choice“, finally explained the president of the Academy, Claudio Marazzini, clarifying that, despite this, both forms are grammatically correct.
It was different for underdog. The wordso in English and very little known in Italywas used by Meloni during her first speech in the Italian Congress, in an attempt to convey a snapshot of a leader who will be on the losing side of the dysfunctions of the current system. “The paradox is that people, even not knowing the word, understood what it meant,” Gianluca Comin, an analyst of Communicative Strategies at the Luiss University in Rome, tells this newspaper.
Cosmopolitans vs. nationalists
In fact, the experts do not completely agree on their first analyzes of Meloni’s language, but they do agree on one statement: Meloni’s way of communicating is “effective”. “His language is simple, very colorful and accompanied by strong gestures, which seem spontaneous and make easy to hear, identify with what he says. People like that,” says Comin, adding that, however, he does not rule out Meloni’s oratory transforming over time.
Part of it has already happened. From an abundance of motivational and revenge slogans (“Pride, Italians”) uttered during the election campaign, Meloni has increasingly come to use the word “responsibility“, which seeks to evoke an attitude of moderation in the position he now holds, especially with his sights set on gaining the favor of the most centrist sectors of the country, and reassuring the European chancelleries.
Although it may be more complex than this. One proof is Meloni’s use of the term “patriot” instead of the word “citizen” popularized by the french revolutionthe historical fact that stands in the way of the development of nationalism. Something that evokes a division: “on the one hand, secular reason and cosmopolitan at the service of the community; on the other, a spirit of the people (Volksgeist) that appeals to the defense of national unity and unity of language, culture, customs and traditions”, as the linguist Massimo Arcangeli explained these days.