The leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, Giorgia Meloni, has declared that she will nominate herself as the country’s prime minister if her party is the most voted in the conservative coalition in the September 25 elections. And, apparently, it will be.
“Unlike the press, I will not be wondering who will be president or prime minister. In the right-wing coalition, the party that receives the most votes will say who should be nominated as prime minister. And that name will be mine,” said the 45-year-old Roman to Italian radio RTL on Monday morning (8).
Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy is in first place in the polls, between 22% and 24%, depending on the poll, will compete together with Matteo Salvini’s also ultra-rightist Liga (between 15% and 17%), and with the conservative Força , Italy (about 8%), by Silvio Berlusconi.
The coalition has an agreement that the most voted party of the three will be responsible for choosing the new government name.
The Italian electoral mechanism works by the logic of alliances, putting the right in a very favorable situation with its more than 45%, according to polls released last week and last weekend. The center-left alliance, on the other hand, has been shaking its head, with unions and disunions succeeding each round of negotiations.
The growth of the Irmãos da Itália in recent years has been impressive. If today it manages to sensitize practically a quarter of the country’s voters, in the last elections, in 2018, it was one of the worst-voted parties, with only 4.4% of the choices.
“I’m Giorgia. A woman, a mother, a Christian.” This is how the president of the party presents itself, which has a nationalist, Eurosceptic platform (disbelief about the European Union) and against the “LGBTQIA+ lobby”, “Islamist violence” and “mass immigration”.
Meloni is full of controversial statements, such as when he suggested a naval blockade in Africa to prevent refugee boats from reaching the Italian coast. In 2012, she participated in the foundation of the Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, in the original, an expression that is in the first verse of the national anthem). If she becomes prime minister, she will be the first woman in the job.
Meloni’s winning corner comes a day after his opponents suffered a major setback. This Sunday (7), centrist Ação (about 5% in polls, along with Mais Europa) announced its withdrawal from participating in the center-left coalition. This alliance is led by the Democratic Party (PD), which alone reaches between 22% and 24% of voters.
The leader of Action, Carlo Calenda, had said that he would leave the union if parties were accepted that had not voted according to proposals by the outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi. He was referring to the 5 Star Movement party (which now has about 10% of the vote), which started talks with the PD and was most responsible for Draghi’s downfall last month.
It was the lack of 5 Star votes for one of Draghi’s proposals that brought down his government, bringing new elections in Italy next year to seven weeks from now. The prime minister remains in office until the new name is chosen.
Should these talks with 5-Star progress and continue through September 25, the PD will still need to keep Italian Left and Green Europe (about 4% both together) on its side and co-opt more allies. All scenarios, however, seem to lean towards the adversaries.
The big parties are joined by other small parties such as Article 1, from the center-left, Compromisso Civico and Itália Viva, from the center, and ItalExit, from the right, all with around 2%.
“The pieces didn’t fit,” said Calenda in an interview with Rai on Sunday. “I am not comfortable with it, there is no courage, seriousness and love in doing politics, so I have communicated to the leaders of the Democratic Party that I do not intend to continue with this alliance.”
Calenda also said that the decision was “the most painful” of his life, to which PD leader Enrico Letta retorted: “It seems to me that the only possible ally for Calenda is Calenda”.
