Italy: Right-wing election winner Meloni denies that she is misogynistic
Created: 09/29/2022, 16:09
By: Tim Vincent Dicke
Feminists see Giorgia Meloni's election victory in Italy as a great danger.
But the right-wing politician does not want to be a misogynist.
Rome – With Giorgia Meloni, Italy has elected the first woman to be prime minister.
Although the right-wing politician had to assert herself against many men in her own ranks, she does not see herself as a feminist.
The head of the Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) party does not want to accept criticism that she is a misogynist.
A video that Meloni uploaded to the Tiktok video platform on election Sunday (September 25) caused a stir.
The right-wing extremist posted a clip of herself holding two melons in front of her chest.
Then she blinked at the camera and said, "25.
September: I said it all with that.” An allusion to her last name, but also to female breasts.
Italy election: Meloni team defends itself against allegations
Meloni and her team don't see sexism.
A spokesman for the right-wing politician told the British newspaper
Guardian
that the melons were merely a reference to the Meloni surname - and the narrative that the 45-year-old was a "woman against women", "tasteless" and "removed from reality".
The Italian had previously caused outrage with a rape video she shared on Twitter.
Giorgia Meloni is the winner of the elections in Italy.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa
Critics fear that a right-wing government will mean a step backwards for women in Italy.
The Italian brothers have a common alliance with Matteo Salvini's right-wing populist League and Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
"Giorgia Meloni wins - also within her party - because she does not touch 'God, Fatherland and Family', this patriarchal concept of our society," criticized Enrico Letta from the Social Democratic Party before the Italian elections.
"Meloni's policies are very negative for women"
"Meloni's policies are very negative for women," says Emma Bonino, a long-time parliamentarian, multiple minister, former EU commissioner and a long-time campaigner for women's rights in Italy.
The right is a long way from emancipation.
"They represent a policy in which women remain in their roles, as crickets at the stove, mother, wife." Meloni means a "step backwards" for women, said Bonino.
Naturally, the brothers of Italy see things differently.
"Not only do we have the first woman prime minister, we also have a large number of women elected to Parliament," Fratelli MP Lavinia Mennuni said, according to the
Guardian
.
"But honestly, it's not about whether Meloni is a woman or not - she's just a very good leader who is determined and understandable.
We have to stop labeling everything 'feminist'." (tvd/dpa)