Taming or Gaining Populists

Giorgia Meloni her party, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), is leading in the opinion polls and, speaking in English, Spanish and French in a recent video, she insisted it had consigned the ideology of fascism to history, but her words and actions give us an other impression and could bring Italy to a similar position as in the 1930s..

Adding to From a land where the people have to give their vote:

Greece and Italy are two weak brothers in the European Union. We may actually look at them as two regularly sick brothers who can cause us a lot of headaches because they are so shaky.

Many Italians had put their hope on Silvio Berlusconi in the mid-1990s. In the past 10 years, various populists from the left and right have surged in the polls or even gained office, only to look much tamer and deflated a few years later.

In the 2013 Italian general election, the anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle or Five Star Movement, founded by the comedian Beppe Grillobut, was the second-most popular single party, though it was only the third-most popular grouping, behind the centre-left Italia. Bene Comune and the centre-right coalition. The 2018 national election was won by them though they have lost half its appeal since then.

In 2019 the Federal Secretary of Italy’s Euroskeptic party Lega Nord (Northern League) advocated the creation of a new state that would include Italy’s wealthier northern regions and the return of the lira. Both UKIP and the Northern League served in the European Parliament as members of the Europe of Freedom & Democracy group. Other Euroskeptic parties included the National Front in France and the Dutch Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid; PVV).

As Europe struggled with an ongoing migrant crisis and a series of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS])-sponsored terrorist attacks those right-wing parties could grow strong.

Matteo Salvini in 2017

Matteo Salvini is one of the strongest supporters of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, and we heard the leader of the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party joining forces to congratulate Putin on his actions, though at other moments she staunchly seems to support Ukraine.

For me it looks like a return of Italy once more choosing for a fascist dictator, like it did with Hitler, now going for Putin. Salvini wants people to believe that Putin is

“the best politician and statesman in the world”.

Giorgia Meloni in 2022

Meloni, being of the likes of Trump, possibly could get a lot of people around her and voting for her because she wants them to believe she is the only one to make Italy great again.

She has been youngest ever vice-president of Italy and could well become the first female president of Italy. For her people on the left are the enemies of the state, but she wants us to believe that Italian fascism is history. As president of the conservative, soft Eurosceptic  European political party with a main focus on reforming the European Union (EU) on the basis of Eurorealism, European Conservatives and Reformists Party, [formerly known as Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) (2009–2016) and Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) ](2016–2019), she said she shared the experiences and values of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, though for me that is far-fetched, Likud in Israel, and the Republican Party in the United States, where she rightly finds her brother in arms, Mr. Trump.

Lots of people are looking for her to

restore freedom and pride to this nation,”

like she told the newspaper Il Giornale.

“They say the markets, actors, and influencers are worried about a centre-right victory. We don’t care what they say. We care what the Italians think.”

Following the collapse in January 2021 of the government led by the unelected Giuseppe Conte when a key coalition partner withdrew during a dispute over the allocation of EU-provided COVID-19 relief funds, Conte was unsuccessful in his attempts to rebuild his coalition, and it seemed possible that Italy was headed toward a snap election in the middle of a pandemic.  Italian Pres. Sergio Mattarella called upon Mario Draghi to serve as prime minister at the head of a unity government, assembling a cabinet that drew representation from a broad spectrum of Italy’s mainstream political parties, thus ensuring that he would have sufficient parliamentary support to advance his agenda. He was officially sworn in as prime minister of Italy on February 13, 2021.

Though Mario Draghi, the former successful head of the European Central Bank, was summoned by his EU masters to take charge in Rome, he could not restore peace in the political groups nor on the economical front.
He managed to guide Italy out of the worst days of the coronavirus SARS–CoV-2 pandemic and secured more than €191 billion (nearly $230 billion) in pandemic recovery funding from the EU, overseeing the successful relaunch of Italy’s struggling vaccination campaign.

When Movimento 5 Stelle (the Five Star Movement) — the party of Draghi’s predecessor— withdrew its support from a key spending package, Draghi treated the matter as a vote of confidence and submitted his resignation to Mattarella, who initially refused to accept his resignation, making Draghi trying to rebuild his coalition. However, on July 21, 2022,  Draghi deemed that there was no path forward, and he dissolved parliament, triggering early elections, which brings us to today Sunday 25 September, where we shall find out how the Italian citizens find their country shall have to go next.

We only fear that the rightist lady, born in Rome on 15 January 1977, who was formed by the the Fronte della Gioventù or the Youth Front, the youth-wing of the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano [Italian Social Movement (MSI)] would be Italy’s first female Prime Minister on Sunday night, and its first right-wing leader since World War I.

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Preceding

1. Is Europe going to become a dictatorial bastion
2. Ten European nations form energy alliance
3. Fourth wave of COVID-19 a pandemic of the unvaccinated
4. Just Stop Oil is only the start of a worldwide ‘spring uprising’
5. Micromobility
6. The Telegraph’s Weekly view 2022 April 30 – May 6
7. Bloomberg’s headlights for the second week of June 2022
8. The New-York Times looking at June 16 – June 26
9. The New York Times from July 04 – July 10
10. The Independent from July 04 – July 10
11. In the picture for 2022 July 04 – July 10 by The Week
12. Bloomberg main messages for 04-10 July 2022
13. Bloomberg main messages for 11-17 July 2022
14. The Guardian Composted reads 2022 July 14
15. The Guardian reviewing 2022 July 18 – July 24
16. The New York Times from July 11 – July 17
17. The New York Times from July 18 – July 24
18. Our selection from Bloomberg July 18 -July 24
19. The Guardian 2022 July 25 – July 31
20. The Observer end of July 2022 overview
21. This is Europe: The Guardian looking at the chaos in Italy and Ukraine
22. The first week of August 2022 as seen by the New York Times
23. 2nd week of August 2022 by Bloomberg
24. The Guardian looking at the 4th week of August 2022

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Additional reading

1. The New gulf of migration and seed for far right parties
2. From a land where the people have to give their vote
3. Where’s the Outrage Over Nun Beachwear? – The Daily Beast
4. When 1 699 676 people worldwide are infected and the number of deaths had totalled 102 734 in 210 countries or territories
5. A dangerous turning point – Earth facing the collapse of everything

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Related

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7. A Meloni election win could shift Europe’s balance of power
8. Italy’s Meloni, leading in polls, says she is no threat
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12. Italy turns right!
13. Irma il duce? Will Mussolini’s political heir become Italy’s next prime minister?
14. Italy’s Meloni says public finances will be safe in her hands
15. Giorgia Meloni: Far-right leader who’s favourite to run Italy
16. Italy’s Meloni promises to defy Chinese and Russian expansionist ambitions
17. Italy’s Meloni warns of broader risks posed by Ukraine conflict
18. Italy’s Meloni clashes with ally Salvini over energy crisis
19. Some people just can’t be helped
20. Meloni says Italy’s right-wing alliance ready to govern
21. Meloni and Berlusconi take the stage as Italy’s right eyes victory
22. Italy heads to polls to vote in snap election
23. Parliamentary elections in Italy – Parlamentsval i Italien – Elezioni parlamentari in Italia – Parlamentswahlen in Italien 
24. Italians vote in election that could bring far-right to power