This is how the next Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, Giorgia Meloni, defines herself. Only with those three words is the program that has raised her to political power defined. And she, moreover, she will be the first woman to achieve it. Gender identity, nativism and homeland They make up the trident for which the majority of Italian men and women who have exercised their right to vote have voted, albeit with a historic abstention.
The reasons that have led to a post-fascist force ruling Italy can be summed up in three: discontent, abstention and electoral system. The first is the widespread discontent with politics after the succession of technocratic governments (Draghi is the latest in a long list) and the absence of solutions to citizen demands. The technocracy one could say that it is the ‘alter ego’ of the populist forces, two faces of Janus that deny pluralism. And, that, in the case of Italy, it has achieved the delegitimization of the political class as a whole and the weakening of democratic institutions. Those political forces that remained on the sidelines have won the support of the citizenry, as is the case with Fratelli d’Italia.
The second reason, abstention, disappointment causes demobilization and in the absence of options, an important part of the citizenry has chosen to stay at home. Not even the extension of the voting age for the Senate has managed to mobilize the young vote, something that would have substantially changed the result, since Meloni is the favorite in all age groups except, precisely, young people. And perhaps this has a lot to do with the inability of the leftist forces to put together an exciting project that he had come together and not divided into three. Of course, and after Letta’s departure, a reflection in this ideological field seems to be necessary, allowing them to get to work and look for alternatives to the incipient Meloni far-right government.
The third, the electoral system, the Rosatellum electoral lawwhich entered into force in 2018 and which favors the electoral platforms over the parties and which in this case has favored the unity of the forces of the right.
Thus, Giorgia Meloni has achieved what she has been pursuing for so many years, without success, Marine Le Pen. The way to achieve this has been the progressive normalization of the discourses of the radical right, incorporated as something natural in the framework of the Italian political discussion, copied by the forces of the center-right and center-left that, as can be seen in many other latitudes of the continent, it is increasingly difficult to find their place in the world.
With the arrival of the ultra Meloni to power we could be facing the formation of two axes of power in the EU that will take over from the classic Paris-Berlin
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Be that as it may, the truth is that Italy, the founding country of the European project, joins the list of governments that are committed to questioning liberal democracies, that display nativist and racist discourses, that attack minorities and degrade those least have. Governments that are no longer committed to old formulas for leaving the EU, but rather choose to propose ethno-national alternatives that replace the current European ‘status quo’ claiming a Europe of nations and peoples. With the arrival of the ultra Meloni to power we could be facing the formation of two axes of power in the EU that will relieve the classic Paris-Berlin. On the one hand, as far as values are concerned, a powerful national-conservative Warsaw-Budapest-Rome axis where pluralism and the rule of law are questioned. On the other hand, the more Atlanticist than Europeanist positions held by both Meloni and Morawiecki would be reinforced, strengthening the positions of the European hawks in relation to the war in Ukraine. The intersection of both axes would weaken the positions of strength of Germany and France, already very weak as a result of the war in Ukraine, opening a new scenario in the European framework.
In light of what has happened in Italy, and even considering its own specificity, it is convenient to be alert to the next movements of this radical new international that each time has the longest tentacles and a greater presence in the power cores.