What a difference a few months can make.

Ahead of Italy’s election last fall, Giorgia Meloni was widely depicted as a menace. By this summer, everything — her youthful admiration for Benito Mussolini, her party’s links to neofascists, her often extreme rhetoric — had been forgiven. Praised for her practicality and support for Ukraine, Ms. Meloni has established herself as a reliable Western partner, central to Group of 7 meetings and NATO summits alike. A visit to Washington, which takes place on Thursday, seals her status as a valued member of the international community.

But the comforting tale of a populist firebrand turned pragmatist overlooks something important: what’s been happening in Italy. Ms. Meloni’s administration has spent its first months accusing minorities of undermining the triad of God, nation and family, with dire practical consequences for migrants, nongovernmental organizations and same-sex parents. Efforts to weaken anti-torture legislation, stack the public broadcaster with loyalists and rewrite Italy’s postwar constitution to increase executive power are similarly troubling. Ms. Meloni’s government isn’t just nativist but has a harsh authoritarian streak, too.

For Italy, this is bad enough. But much of its significance lies beyond its borders, showing how the far right can break down historic barriers with the center right. Allies of Ms. Meloni are already in power in Poland, also newly legitimized by their support for Ukraine. In Sweden, a center-right coalition relies on the nativist Sweden Democrats’ support to govern. In Finland, the anti-immigrant Finns Party went one better and joined the government. Though these parties, like many of their European counterparts, once rejected membership in NATO and the European Union, today they seek a place in the main Euro-Atlantic institutions, transforming them from within. In this project, Ms. Meloni is leading the way.

Since becoming prime minister, Ms. Meloni has certainly moderated her language. In official settings, she’s at pains to appear considered and cautious — an act aided by her preference for televised addresses rather than questioning by journalists. Yet she can also rely on colleagues in her Brothers of Italy party to be less restrained. Taking aim at one of the government’s main targets, L.G.B.T.Q. parents, party leaders have called surrogate parenting a “crime worse than pedophilia,” claiming that gay people are “passing off” foreign kids as their own. Ms. Meloni can appear aloof from such rhetoric, even suggesting unhappiness with its extremism. But her decisions in office reflect zealotry, not caution. The government extended a ban on surrogacy to criminalize adoptions in other countries and ordered municipalities to stop registering same-sex parents, leaving children in legal limbo.

[…]

Journalists, too, are under pressure. Sitting ministers have threatened — and in some cases pursued — a raft of libel suits against the Italian press in an apparent bid to intimidate critics. The public broadcaster RAI is also under threat, and not just because its mission for the next five years includes “promoting birthrates.” After its chief executive and leading presenters resigned, citing political pressure from the new government, it now resembles tele-Meloni, with rampant handpicking of personnel. The new director general, Giampaolo Rossi, is a pro-Meloni hard-liner who previously distinguished himself as an organizer of an annual Brothers of Italy festival. In the aftermath of his appointment, news outlets published scores of his anti-immigration social media posts and an interview with a neofascist journal in which he condemned the antifascist “caricature” hanging over public life

This is not his concern alone. Burying the antifascist legacy of the wartime Resistance matters deeply to the Brothers of Italy, a party rooted in its fascist forefathers’ great defeat in 1945. As prime minister, Ms. Meloni has referred to Italy’s postwar antifascist culture as a repressive ideology, responsible even for the murder of right-wing militants in the political violence of the 1970s. It’s not just history to be rewritten. The postwar Constitution, drawn up by the Resistance-era parties, is also ripe for revision: The Brothers of Italy aims to create a directly elected head of government and a strong executive freer of constraint. No matter its novelty, Ms. Meloni’s administration has every chance of imposing enduring changes in the political order.

[…]

Success is hardly inevitable. Ahead of last week’s election in Spain, Ms. Meloni addressed her nationalist ally Vox, declaring that the “patriots’ time has come”; in fact, its vote share fell and right-wing parties failed to secure a majority. Even so, Vox has become an enduring part of the electoral arena and a regular ally for conservatives. Despite their growing success, such forces have for years been painted as insurgent outsiders representing long-ignored voters. The more disturbing truth is that they are no longer parties of protest, but increasingly welcome in the mainstream. For proof, just look to Washington on Thursday.

  • monobot@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    I would like to see what Italians see and think, it is easy to have limited view from outside.

    If someone has link where Italians discuss this issues, my deepl translate is ready.

    • WaDef7@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      1 year ago

      Honestly I think the article is pretty fair, overall.

      The biggest difference between having a massive right wing pseudo-fascist party in a government majority and that same party leading the majority is how little they feel the need to feign. Like now the right hand man of Meloni can totally bring up the craziest world conspiracy with no proof at all, say he didn’t know it was a bad thing only to repeat the same things a week after.
      The politicians just don’t have to pretend anymore, and they’re slowly stretching the boundaries of what’s normal in favour of their own plans.

      As for the life of everyday people, I’d be hard pressed to find someone, anyone, actually praising this government in public, everyone I hear talking about whatever they come up with is either disgusted or concerned.
      I believe what’s happening now is the same thing that was happening back in Berlusconi’s days: the ones voting for these people are aware that what they’re doing is wrong and they hide in shame until they’re sure they’re surrounded only by the right people.

    • Syrc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Can’t really be bothered to find it again, but I’ve had/seen some discussions on r/italy when she got elected.

      “Oh fuck the fascists won”

      “Come on, she’s not fascist, she’s just right-wing”

      “Her party’s president of the senate literally has a Mussolini bust in his house”

      “Yeah ok but she didn’t do anything fascist so far”

      “…”

    • Damage
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      You can check out our lemmy instance, feddit.it, but it’s not super active.

      • monobot@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I will, it was easier with r/italy since when I see topic of interest there were enough comments to understand different angles.

    • crius@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m Italian but living in UK atm. Another great country to be in at this time /s

      As per everywhere, there are many that are concerned, scared or downright enraged but the vast majority will simply accept whatever happens because the vast majority of people, always, everywhere, just want to not have problems knock on the door.

      Italy is living through a major social crisis since years and years. This is just the last events that caught the eye of the international public but this right / populist leaning have been happening already since 10+ years ago.

      Already with the “5 star movement” it was obvious that there was some distress going on.

      The reality is that the longest we stay divided as communities / countries, they easier we get influenced or simply get down the wrong road without nobody saying something because everyone’s busy doing its own thing.

    • zer0@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Italian here. All politicians are fascists powertripping not just the ones who made it public. See Macron. Governments live behind a veil of lies and don’t get to show their true face unless needed, if there were serious protests in any “democratic” country in the world i can guarantee you that the reaction would be the same: they would unleash police on people and threat everyone.

      • monobot@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is the exact thing I am concerned about, they pick on some but not on others.

        To me it looks like it is just medua game to push someone people controling the media don’t like. I don’t think Meloni is good by any means, but from my angle looks less or on same level of fascist like Macron, Anglela Merkel, Biden, Hillary… or most others top politicians (when you look at their influence in other countries and not just what media is promoting).

        What I don’t understand is why Melony? She is not from the same school or something?