2023-09-25 18:01:44
The honeymoon between Giorgia Meloni and her electorate continues. Coming in first in the legislative elections on September 25, 2022, his far-right and post-fascist party, Fratelli d’Italia, is still the favorite of Italians with nearly 30% favorable opinion.
She was elected on promises dear to the radical and populist right: a naval blockade to stop immigration, a return to traditional values – order, family and homeland –, an ambiguous position on abortion and very clear on rights. of the LGBT community, shouting in meetings “ yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby ”, and without economic proposals other than “ restore purchasing power» to households.
But while political instability reigns supreme in Italy, the consensus around Giorgia Meloni remains. 70% of Italians are even convinced that she will complete her five-year mandate, something never seen since the re-election of Silvio Berlusconi in 2001.
“His populist speeches clash with the reality of power”
At the economic level, his liberal right policy is a continuation of that led by Mario Draghi. On the other hand, his relentlessness against same-sex families is worrying. Transforming her words into actions, she increasingly reduces the rights of LGBT+ people, already very limited in Italy. Thus, same-sex couples do not have access to marriage, adoption, or medically assisted procreation (MAP).
In January, mayors were ordered to no longer register the children of homosexual couples with the surnames of both parents, considering that only mothers who had given birth could be recognized. Depriving the second parent of all their rights. This summer, Italian parliamentarians also voted for a bill making surrogacy – banned in Italy – a “universal crime”. If approved by the Senate, this measure would punish those who use it with a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of 1 million euros.
On the other hand, on the migration issue, the problem lies. After a fanfare start and a decree which further complicates the work of NGOs at sea, Giorgia Meloni is caught up in the news with the arrival in Lampedusa of more than 10,000 migrants in less than a week. Since January 2023, Italy has welcomed nearly 130,000 migrants, around twice as many as last year, forcing it to further toughen its tone to reassure its voters.
She thus announced the creation of new detention centers and the increase in the length of detention for illegal migrants. “ His populist speeches clash with the reality of power, we cannot stop immigration with a naval blockade, it makes no sense », Analyzes Piero Ignazi, professor of political science at the University of Bologna.
A right with two faces
But Giorgia Meloni sees further. She wants to establish herself as the leader of the conservative right for the 2024 European elections. She wants to ally with the European People’s Party (the moderate right) to create a union of the rights and influence the European majority, without losing her core electorate.explains the political scientist, Massimiliano Panarari. She wants to make Fratelli d’Italia a classic conservative right-wing party. » To perform her pirouette, she “ focuses everything on ambiguity, to satisfy everyone. It eliminates citizenship income then, suddenly, taxes bank profits ».
« On the one hand, it gives assurances to Brussels, on the other, it intervenes very little in the racist, revisionist or homophobic outings of its majority, agrees Giorgia Serughetti, researcher in political philosophy at the University of Milan-Bicocca. A right with two faces, typical of the new populist radical rights, “ as in Poland, Hungary and a little at Vox (Spanish far-right party, Editor’s note), continues the expert.A “normalization” (which) makes it possible to pass more radical measures against the rights of LGBT people, foreigners or refugees. It offends certain minorities, but the rest of the population is satisfied, so that’s okay, it’s democracy “. A Meloni version of democracy!
——-
A historic shift
After the fall, in July 2022, of Mario Draghi’s national unity government, voters were called to the polls early, on September 25.
Giorgia Meloni is the first woman and the first heiress of a far-right party resulting from fascism to access the presidency of the Italian Council.
The alliance of the rights (League and Forza Italia) led by its post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia obtained, with more than 44% of the votes, a majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
On the left, the Democratic Party (PD) of former Prime Minister Enrico Letta (2013-2014) and its allies obtained only 26% of the votes.
In the center, two groups competed right and left: the Third Pole, a new alliance created in the summer of 2022, and the 5 Star Movement of former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (2018-2021), respectively obtained scores 8% and 15%.
#Giorgia #Meloni #succeeded #challenge #normalize