Meloni has stated in interviews that Mussolini was a “multifaceted personality”.
Italy’s far-right Adelfia party is claiming the lead in September’s elections. Its head, Georgia Melonimay become the first female prime minister in Italy.
A modest stone plaque and a withered wreath remain in Rome’s Via della Scrofa, near the Parliament, to commemorate Alberto Marchesi, the anti-fascist fighter executed by the SS in 1944 in the Adriatic Caves. Almost next to the stone slab, a much smaller Plexiglas sign has been posted, informing about the new tenant. This is the neo-fascist party “Brothers of Italy”. Strange coexistence on the facade of the same building.
Neo-fascist parties have been established since 1946 at number 39 Via della Scrofa. First came the MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), later the ‘National Alliance’ and now the ‘Brothers of Italy’, who took their name from the first verse of the Italian national anthem. For the president of the party, Giorgia Meloni, it was particularly important to remain in the building that had hosted other nostalgics of the dictator Benito Mussolini. She has stated in her interviews that Mussolini was a “multifaceted personality”.
“Eternal Flame” and “Roman Salute”
Meloni does not distance herself from fascism. In her autobiography she admits that she moves in a “politically mined” landscape. “We are children of our history, all of our history,” he writes characteristically. “As happened with other nations, the road we traveled is complex, much more complicated than the narratives that are heard.” Only the worship of the leader’s face, she says Meloni rejects. When she gives interviews at the party offices, she is always accompanied by the flame symbol, in the national colors of Italy. “I have nothing to apologize for in my life,” says Meloni. “And yet, in most of the televised debates I go to, I am asked about history and not about the current issues of the country. I don’t think this is right.”
Ahead of the pre-election period, Georgia Meloni has given written orders to party members to avoid extreme statements, any reference to fascism and especially the “Roman salute” with the outstretched right hand, which is reminiscent of the “Hitler salute”. The “Brothers of Italy” are attempting to move from the fringes of the Far Right to the political Center. Their aim is to form, after the early elections on September 25, with Matteo Salvini’s far-right “Lega” and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia a new governing coalition, which maintains at least a semblance of urban ethos and behavior.
“The fact that Meloni has reached this far is due to those who beautify her presence,” says the Spanish journalist Alba Sidera, who follows the developments in the field of the Italian Far Right.
“These include a media that insists on calling ‘centre-right’ politicians like Salvini and Meloni, up to Berlusconi and Grillini, who brought her to the brink of power, but also a disoriented Centre-Left, who had underestimated her, resulting in legitimize. Meloni appeared out of nowhere. He was preparing, for many years, to take power.”
Fan of fascism since childhood
Born in 1977, Georgia Meloni had joined from the age of 15 the youth of the neo-fascist MSI in reaction to the “left-wing terrorism” of the time. Later she joined the student organization of the “National Alliance”, while in 2006 she was elected to parliament and in 2008 she became the youngest minister in the history of Italy. At the age of 31, he took over the Ministry of Youth in Silvio Berlusconi’s government. Ten years ago, he founded the new party “Brothers of Italy”, which he has led since 2014. In 2020, he also took over the leadership of the political group of the European Conservatives and Reformists ( ECR), which also includes other ultra-conservative and Eurosceptic political forces, such as the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland.
Unbridled populism
Meloni enters the election campaign with the populist slogan “Italy and the Italians first”. In her program she calls for more social benefits, lower taxes, less European bureaucracy, as well as an end to immigration. He promises to “renegotiate” Italy’s membership of the EU and the euro. He rejects abortion and “marriage for all”. He does not know much in the field of economic and foreign policy. Her characteristic, however, is her unwavering self-confidence. She recently wrote on Facebook that she is tired of “being constantly labeled as a black widow” and believes that her opponents are just jealous of her success. He says he supports Ukraine and doesn’t want to be associated with Putin. As for Europe, he envisages an “Italian leadership” in trying to turn the EU into a loose economic union…
Byrd Riegert
Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou
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