The quirky world of Italian politics has thrown Europe another curve ball in the person of Giorgia Meloni, a ‘post-fascist’ fascist, who was elected Prime Minister at the head of the decidedly masculinist Fratelli d’Italia (FdL). Meloni is falling over backward to convince a worried West about her commitments to European defence and prosperity. To do this she needs to back away from previous flirtations with Italy’s fascist past.
Now 45, Meloni first achieved political prominence when appointed by her rightwing confidant Silvio Berlusconi as minister of youth in 2008. This made her the youngest cabinet minister in Italian history. Four years later, she drew back from electoral engagements to build the FdL and cement her international connections with the far right – particularly in Spain and the US. She thus avoided the dramatic fall from grace of other ultra-conservatives such as Berlusconi and anti-immigration premier Matteo Salvini. When she finally re-emerged as the FdL leader in the 2022 election, she was able to present herself as a ‘new face’ in an Italy much fatigued by ‘insiders’. While the FdL vote soared to 28 per cent (up from 4 per cent in the previous election) both Salvini’s Lega (9 per cent) and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (8 per cent) saw their vote collapse. The degree to which Meloni’s vote is one for the far right – or one cast simply out of exhaustion with insiders who fail to deliver – is an open question.
