If Giorgia Meloni, the far-right politician poised to become Italy’s first woman prime minister, is one thing, it’s consistent.
In 1992, the then 15-year-old Roman joined Youth Front, the youth wing of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, in 1992.
Today, she is the leader of the Brothers of Italy, a party rooted in a post-war movement ignited by dictator Benito Mussolini’s fascists.
Exit polls strongly suggest voters have elected Meloni as prime minister in Italy’s general election yesterday.
She will likely head a conservative coalition that will be the country’s most right-wing government since World War Two.
Activists and academics warned Metro.co.uk that a Meloni premiership will undoubtedly put the lives of vulnerable people at risk.
But how did she come to be the rising star of Italy’s far right and what are her views?
Giorgia Meloni, from right-wing youth activists to potential PM
Meloni has spent her decades-long time in politics involved in the far-right.
This might as come as a surprise to her neighbours and classmates though, given that she grew up in the left-wing neighbourhood of Garbatella in Rome.
Yet she shoved her way into a then all-male local branch of the Youth Front before leading the student branch of the far-right National Alliance.
She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006.
At 31, she became the country’s youngest minister as a youth minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s government, a role she held from 2008 to 2011.
The following year, the National Party collapsed in on itself and became reborn as the Brothers of Italy with Melosi as leader.
The Brothers of Italy has never been shy about its roots.
Its symbol, a tri-coloured flame, is the same as that of the National Alliance and the Italian Social Movement – founded by veterans of Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic.
In 2020, Meloni became chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists, a Eurosceptic party that includes, among other right-wing parties, the Polish ruling party Law and Justice and Vox.
Charging headfirst into the snap general election with the slogan, ‘Italy and Italian people first!’, Meloni has come to distance herself from what she calls the ‘nostalgic’ elements of the Brothers of Italy.
She softened some of her party’s go-to policies and stressed her support for Ukraine, even though she once said Vladimir Putin’s election was ‘the unequivocal will of the Russian people’.
What are her views exactly?
During her campaign, Meloni became known for many things. Some she worked hard to ensure voters know — ‘I am a woman. I am a mother’ — while others through her ferocious speeches.
She summed up her views in a speech to Spain’s far-right Vox party, saying: ‘Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology… no to Islamist violence, yes to secure borders, no to mass migration… no to big international finance… no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!’
Meloni said she wants to focus on ‘traditional Christian family values’, prevent abortions, renegotiate EU treaties, lower taxes and ensure same-gender couples do not have surrogacy or adoption rights.
Protecting the country from so-called ‘Islamisation’ and upping defence spending are among her other pledges.
But Meloni’s efforts to rebrand her party’s image will only go so far, said Dr George Newth, a politics lecturer for the University of Bath.
‘While Italy’s new far-right coalition may not see a return to black-shirted squads on the street or the banning of all political opposition which characterised Mussolini’s fascist era, it nevertheless draws on many of its reactionary ideas,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘Fascism’s strong emphasis on ‘God, Fatherland, and Family’, is embodied by Giorgia Meloni’s brand of politics (indeed, it was one of her campaign slogans) and has inspired her attacks on migrant and LGBTQ+ rights.’
Meloni might be the new normal, Dr Newth warned, as parties with fascist histories long considered taboo elbow their way into mainstream Italy.
‘Meloni is benefitting from a normalisation and mainstreaming of the far right which goes beyond Italy and is putting many lives at risk,’ he said.
The rise of the far-right will ‘put many lives at risk’, warns political expert
Beth Gardiner-Smith, the CEO of refugee aid group Safe Passage International, warned that Meloni making migrants public enemy number one will lead to ‘death’.
‘The rise of far-right anti-immigrant politics in Italy is terrifying news for refugees,’ she said.
‘Just this weekend over 90 men, women and children drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean in search of safety, and yet policies being proposed by Giorgia Meloni’s party would almost certainly lead to more deaths.’
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the largest umbrella organisation of women’s associations in the EU, have long wished for a woman to lead Italy.
But the EWL said that such a woman needs to be one that can fight for reproductive rights.
‘A lot remains to be done to achieve women’s equal representation in politics and in decision-making positions, and to have women’s experiences and interests equally included in the political agenda,’ the EWL said.
‘It is critical that the new Italian government, lead by Giorgia Meloni, upholds women’s fundamental rights and European values.’
Meloni has long been aware of how her beliefs come across to her critics — ‘they call us monsters’ — but she feels voters simply don’t care.
‘They’ll accuse me of being a fascist my whole life,’ Meloni said in a recent interview.
‘But I don’t care because in any case, the Italians don’t believe anymore in this garbage.’
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