From a Party of Fascist Background, Georgia Meloni Is Likely to Become the First Female Italian Prime Minister

Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, or FdI) and the candidate that has the most chances to become Italy's prime minister, adopts several concepts and programs that call, in parts, for imposing a naval blockade to prevent migrants from reaching Italy.

With the fall of the national unity government headed by former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the cards of the main Italian political parties were mixed, as if the decision to resign came by surprise. The classical parties seemed unprepared for early elections, except for the right-wing Brothers of Italy’s party led by Italian politician Giorgia Meloni.

The earthquake of the government's resignation reflected positively on this party in particular, which saw in it an additional opportunity to achieve additional gains and made its way towards the upcoming elections to deliver its president to head the government.

This optimism was supported by a series of opinion polls conducted by several specialized institutions, which considered that the Brothers of Italy, and specifically its president, Georgia Meloni, has a great chance of winning the elections scheduled after 2 days.

 

Her Rise

Brothers of Italy is currently the most prominent political party on the Italian scene, and the only one that has continued since the fascist era (it adopts policies and opinions described as belonging to neo-fascism) and the changes that have occurred in the discourses and policies of the parties that owed their programs to racist (fascist) ideology.

The party's president has been the focus of attention of the press and observers of Italian affairs over the past few years, with her rocket rise to the leadership of the party.

Giorgia Meloni rose to the chair of the far-right party eight years ago, and today she is steadily making her way to head the country's government, and this matter, if it happens, will mean that the extreme right will be able to occupy that sensitive position for the first time since 1922 when the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini managed to occupy it. Also, she will be the first woman in the history of Italy to be able to hold that position.

Since entering politics, Meloni has taken controversial positions, including when she praised Mussolini in 1996, calling him "a good politician, the best of the past 50 years."

 

Political Career

Meloni was born in the working-class Garbatella neighborhood of Rome in 1977. She joined the youth branch of the Italian Social Movement (the Conservative Right) when she was only 15 years old.

She rotated a number of positions within the conservative movement until she was elected to the Provincial Council of Rome.

In 2006, at the age of 29, Meloni became the youngest-ever deputy speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Two years later, she was appointed Minister of Youth in Silvio Berlusconi's government.

At the age of 32, Berlusconi's party merged with the center-right group Forza Italia and a new group was created, People of Freedom, of which Meloni became head of its youth department.

By November 2012, she announced her intention to head the People of Freedom, which she did in March 2014. Over the following years, she adopted very tough stances on LGBT practices, same-sex marriage, and immigration, and raised the slogan "God, homeland, the family,” which is in the minds of many who lived through the Second World War and its aftermath.

 

Pro-European Alliance

Since the call for early elections following the fall of the Draghi government last month, Meloni has made headlines with her controversial remarks.

Last June, at a meeting of the right-wing Vox party in coastal Marbella, Spain, Meloni gave a speech in which she warned of the dangers of immigration and homosexuality, "Yes to the natural family, no to LGBT groups, yes to gender identity, no to gender ideology, yes to culture Life, not death culture."

Later, she launched a campaign on her social media to promote her domestic and European policies. About two weeks ago she posted video messages in English, French, and Spanish saying that her party would not threaten Italy's financial stability and that they would stick to Rome's traditional alliances.

In the previous general elections in 2018, the Brothers of Italy received only 4% of the vote and participated in a conservative coalition with Matteo Salvini's party, which had a larger popular base, and Silvio Berlusconi's more moderate Forza Italia.

Today, with several different actors and factors on the Italian political scene, opinion polls indicate that the same "Brothers of Italy – League – Forza Italia" coalition has a good chance of getting enough votes to form a right-wing government, but this time Meloni is no longer a junior partner but has become the leader of the alliance.

 

Closed Borders Policy

The Brothers of Italy won many votes from Salvini’s voters, who were fed up with his policies and the repeated political defeats he suffered, as well as the two parties' adoption of very similar programs targeting the same voters.

Meloni and Salvini agree on almost everything: stopping immigration, avoiding paying taxes, helping the elderly...so it is only natural that when Salvini's popularity drops, Meloni's shares rise, said David Maria de Luca, political correspondent for the progressive newspaper Domani.

While the terms of Meloni's program overlap with that of Salvini’s League (Lega), especially when it comes to immigration, closed borders, and a naval blockade to prevent asylum seekers from reaching the country," Meloni did not highlight that issue as central to her program as Salvini did, rather she proceeded to adopt the concept of Christian values as the main focus.

According to Matteo Cavallaro, a researcher on the far-right at the University of Lausanne, even if Meloni was from a party associated with the fascist period, and entered politics through the portal of the Italian social movement founded by people openly nostalgic for the era of Benito Mussolini, Italians do not seem concerned about this.

Yet, the Italian researcher stated that the process of staying at the top of the polls is not easy, and Meloni, if she wins, will have to prove her ability to control the reins of power quickly, otherwise, she may end up as her predecessor.