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Giorgia Meloni
Photo: CLAUDIO PERI / EPA
“I would like to say that I am pleased that the new Italian Prime Minister is a woman because I believe and there is scientific evidence that women are more empathetic and sensitive to the feelings of others.
As a result, they show more warmth and concern for the well-being of others."
The Dalai Lama wrote this on his website on Sunday to congratulate Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on taking office.
And further: “These are very difficult times for Italy and for all of humanity.
In today's highly connected world, individuals and nations can no longer solve the problems they face on their own.
We depend on community to survive, so we need to show more kindness and compassion to one another."
I want to scratch my eyes out for so many reasons after saying these words and never thought that the Dalai Lama could make me feel like this.
In fairness, it should be noted that these words are representative of a number of public statements by government officials who, via Twitter, were not quick enough to congratulate the leaders of a party that had not overcome fascism on their political success.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy all tweeted only the warmest words of goodwill to the nationalist.
Of course, Meloni is a fan of Mussolini
Of course, our in-house communication talent, Chancellor Scholz, also offered the protocol of courtesy in a mixture of English and Italian: "Congratulazioni @GiorgiaMeloni," he tweeted at her, "I look forward to continue working closely together with Italy in EU, NATO and G7." , he continues and closes with »All the best and thank you to Mario Draghi @Palazzo_Chigi for the good German-Italian partnership in recent years.«
The many friendly wishes often included the praise of the “first female” in office.
Perhaps, like the Dalai Lama, they thought that a woman qua gender would make better, more inclusive politics - or at least be the visible pretense of such.
(We saw what nonsense that is with Le Pen.)
And, well, of course, Meloni is a fan of Mussolini, so at least she once said of him that he did a good job because everything he did, he did for Italy.
And yes, she advocates an essentially anti-feminist family policy, as she expects women to be better than men in order to have the right to participate in professional life.
(In addition to raising children, of course, for the birth rate!) And sure, she's a nationalist populist who talks about nebulous financial elites who want to enslave us all - but she's a Frahau!
Meloni's party, »the brothers of Italy«, emerged from the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), a neo-fascist party founded in 1946 by fascists and loyal supporters of Mussolini.
The young Meloni was also in their youth organization in the early 1990s.
The neo-fascists of the MSI became the Alleanza Nazionale (AN) in the mid-nineties - and from this Meloni in turn made her Fratelli d'Italia in 2012.
With all name changes, the flame always remained in the party coat of arms.
According to legend, the logo was created by Giorgio Almirante, who was a Nazi collaborator before becoming leader of the MSI.
With the idea that here a light should burn over the resting place of Mussolini and illuminate it brightly forever.
Other interpretations consider the flame itself to be the spirit of the Italian fascist, continuing to burn above all.
The visual language conveys further thought: politically, the flame of fascism has never been extinguished – so was it never gone?
What, then, is the classification of the Fratelli d'Italia as "post-Fascist"?
A theorization of »post-fascism« comes from the Italian historian Enzo Traverso, who dealt with European developments of the new right in his book »The New Faces of Fascism«, published in 2017.
In it he offers the term, above all to make visible the historical continuities and the hybrid character of today's right-wing national movements.
Unfortunately, public congratulations to a nationalist are part of forgetting.
According to Traverso, the post-fascist parties are those that are in a transitional phase, whose political values and ideals have a fascist background, but which are also organized in the structures of a democracy, i.e. have no openly communicated efforts to overthrow the rule of law in order to become powerful will.
In order to remain electable, they do not invoke their origins, in contrast to neo-fascists, who explicitly try to continue and renew an old fascism - as the MSI wanted to do.
"In trying to define (post-fascists), we cannot ignore the fascist womb from which they emerged, since these are their historical roots, but we should also perceive their metamorphoses," explains Traverso.
And as if to illustrate Traverso's concept of post-fascism, in her autobiography »Io sono Giorgia«, Meloni writes about the moment when she moved into the former government offices of Giorgio Almirante's neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano with her Fratelli d'Italia in 2019: »My heart is beating, but I have never been as clear as in these moments.
Gianfranco Fini once held the same office, and before him Pino Rauti and Giorgio Almirante.
(...) I have taken over the baton of a seventy-year history, I have carried on my shoulders the dreams and hopes of a people that found itself without a party and without a leader.«
Even if Meloni now denies its proximity to fascism (which is historically and factually wrong), and in her keynote speech on Tuesday locates her country in the political center of the EU and NATO, one should not want to forget out of naivety, diplomacy or hermeneutic benevolence what she has said before.
Unfortunately, public congratulations to a nationalist are precisely part of this forgetting.
There is no political or diplomatic need to congratulate a woman like Meloni on Twitter on taking office.
Even if you want to keep protocol, a message from one house to the next is enough - but bugging social media with protestations "looking forward working with you" and thus contributing to the normalization of fascism is as alarming as it is historically oblivious.
There is nothing to celebrate, nothing to smile about in a friendly way, nothing to tweet solemnly when right-wing nationalism is gaining strength in Europe.
The only thing I would accept: Congratulations on your election victory, post-fascist woman!