Giorgia Meloni - a post-fascist on the way to Italy's head of government

Created: 09/14/2022, 10:05 am

By: Felix Durach

Giorgia Meloni, party leader of Fratelli d'Italia, wants to become the country's first female prime minister in the general election in Italy.

© Cecilia Fabiano/dpa

The European right is backing Giorgia Meloni.

The Roman could become Italy's prime minister in September's parliamentary elections.

Rome – On September 25, Italy will elect a new parliament.

After the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi on July 21, Italy is once again looking for a new head of government.

For the first time, a woman can make the leap to the top of the Italian government.

Giorgia Meloni, party leader of the post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia, is considered the favorite in the race to succeed Draghi.

In the previous parliamentary elections in 2018, their “brothers of Italy” received just over four percent of the vote.

In polls before the Italian elections, however, the post-fascist party saw more than 25 percent of the “Fratelli” as the strongest force in the Italian parliament.

Meloni is already making plans behind the scenes – the 45-year-old even wants to change the country's political system.

Who is the woman who wants to be Italy's first female prime minister?

Giorgia Meloni: From the streets of Rome to the Prime Minister's office

Georgia Meloni was born in Rome, Italy, in 1977.

Like the resigned Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the 45-year-old is a real capital city child.

Meloni became politically active early on and joined the neo-fascist movement “Movimento Sociale Italiano” at the age of 15.

In her autobiography "Io sono Giorgia" (Eng. "I am Giorgia"), the 45-year-old also justified her decision by saying that she wanted to get back at her communist father for leaving the family.

Meloni later joined the youth wing of the Alleanza Nazionale (AN) party, where she was elected the first woman to head the organization in 2004.

The party was considered national conservative and also represented some neo-fascist positions - but has since turned away from fascism.

Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was also a member of the AN.

Italy election: Giorgia Meloni was the youngest minister in Italian history

Meloni also entered the Italian Chamber of Deputies for the AN in 2006 and was re-elected two years later.

At the age of 31, under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Roman woman became the youngest minister in Italian history and held the post of Minister for Youth and Sport until 2011.

A year later, Meloni turned away from Berlusconi and founded the Fratelli d'Italia party together with Ignazio La Russa.

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Exactly ten years after it was founded, the Fratelli d'Italia could lead a governing coalition for the first time after the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The "Brothers of Italy" were one of the few parties not to join Prime Minister Mario Draghi's coalition government and were able to make massive gains in the opposition polls.

Meloni, in turn, was able to collect points from the voters as spokesman for the opposition.

A right-wing alliance with the right-wing conservative Forza Italia led by Silvio Berlusconi and the right-wing populist Lega Nord led by former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is conceivable after the post-fascists win the elections.

Politicians across Europe are therefore concerned about the forthcoming Italian elections.

This is also due to the EU-critical positions of Salvini and Meloni.

However, the 45-year-old defended herself against the allegations during the election campaign.

"I read that a victory for the Fratelli d'Italia in the September elections would be a disaster, lead to an authoritarian turn, Italy's exit from the euro and other nonsense of that kind," Meloni said.

That doesn't correspond to the truth.

A right-wing alliance would probably be the best choice for the 45-year-old because she strictly rejects political cooperation with the democratic left.

Giorgia Meloni: These are the substantive positions of the post-fascist

In terms of content, Meloni is considered a political populist.

She is known for her radical statements.

The Roman woman stands for arch-conservative politics and has repeatedly been homophobic, anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic in the past.

In the weeks leading up to the election, however, she adopts a somewhat more moderate tone – but critics only see it as a calculation, a distraction from their actual thinking.

In a much-quoted speech at an election event of the far-right Spanish party Vox in Andalusia, the 45-year-old outlined her political position herself: "Yes to the natural family.

No to the LGBT lobby.

Yes to sexual identity.

No to gender ideology.

Yes to the culture of life.

No to the abyss of death (abortion).

Yes to the values ​​of the cross.

No to Islamist violence.

Yes to safe borders.

No to illegal mass immigration (...).

Yes to the sovereignty of the people.

No to Brussels bureaucrats.”

Unlike many European right-wing populists, however, Meloni has repeatedly sided with Ukraine in the ongoing Ukraine war and has also advocated further support from Italy.

Giorgia Meloni has a "carefree relationship" with fascism

In an interview she gave to the French news channel Soir 3 at the age of 19 in 1996, Meloni praised Benito Mussolini's policies.

She declared that Mussolini was a good politician, the best in the previous 50 years.

Meloni later qualified her statements, pointing out that Italy's fascist leader had made "some mistakes".

Nevertheless, today she has a "carefree relationship" with fascism.

Excitement about the Fratelli d'Italia party logo - Meloni rejects criticism

This "carefree relationship" is also reflected in the recent discussion about the Fratelli d'Italia logo.

A flame blazes in the colors green, white and red in the emblem.

This symbolism has been a hallmark of the post-fascists in Italy for decades.

However, Meloni himself described the logo as "an icon we are proud of".

The flame blazes in the party's logo from a fine blue line, which, however, is intended to represent a stylized version of Benito Mussolini's coffin.

In a figurative sense, this is intended to show that the spirit of the "Duce" continues to "burn" like a flame in the minds of the post-fascists.

A similar representation was also found in the logo of the Alleanza Nazionale, which is considered the ideological forerunner of the Fratelli d'Italia.

Meloni received a lot of criticism for the post-fascist symbolism.

The 45-year-old had been asked to refrain from the fire, and Holocaust survivors also appealed to her – but the Roman stuck to the presentation.

Meloni later claims the flame had nothing to do with fascism.

Post-fascist Giorgia Meloni could become Italy's next prime minister

Whether Meloni can really become Italy's first female prime minister after September 25 is ultimately in the hands of the voters.

The only thing that is clear is that Italy, under the leadership of the Fratelli d'Italia, will differ significantly from the previous government under the avowed European and former ECB head Mario Draghi.

The third largest economy in the EU could face turbulent times.