2024-01-26 07:37:00
Surprise: the Economist promotes Meloni
“Giorgia Meloni proved the skeptics wrong”. Not only. “Liberal fears proved to be overblown.” While part of the Italian press is on a collision course with the prime minister, the prestigious British weekly The Economist (certainly not on radical right positions), promotes the Italian government. In the issue coming out on Friday 26 January, the Economist editorial team dedicates two articles to the Meloni executive, in which his path up to now is analysed, especially in the light of the criticisms and fears expressed on the eve (and to be honest, in Italy also during) of the experience at Palazzo Chigi.
Among the positive elements cited by the Economist, to foreign policy. “Relations with Italy’s NATO allies are good. Italy has given enthusiastic support, and weapons, to Ukraine and rather moderate support to Israel. It has also made Brussels happy enough to allow the European Commission to continue providing regularly shares of the 194 billion euros ($211 billion) allocated to Italy from the EU’s Covid-19 recovery fund, by far the highest amount to any member state”, it reads.
During the election campaign, the spread between Italian and German public debt has widened, due to fears that Meloni could fall out with Brussels and perhaps even destabilize the euro itself. Some saw an alliance with the Hungarian strongman, Viktor Orban, with the nationalist right in Poland and with Marine Le Pen in France. But after 15 months, writes the Economist, Meloni “It seems to be more conventional than demolishing.”
Still: “Nor has Meloni been a thorn in the side of her fellow European leaders or the legions of Brussels bureaucrats whose job is to worry about the stability of the euro and the European Union itself. The spread narrowed to around 1.5 percentage points and the markets show no signs of nervousness, despite Italy’s weak growth. He has not collaborated with Orban or other populists to block EU decision-making, nor has he attracted censure from the EU’s rule of law guardians. In Ukraine she was admirable, sending money and weapons despite Italy’s traditional ties to Russia. Fears that Italy would take a turn towards xenophobia proved unfounded, despite the sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving by sea”.
The shadows on the economy and migrants
The weekly also reviews everything that was feared could happen and never happened: “Social policy remained unchanged, despite the Brothers’ hostility to abortion and gay civil unions. It is true that there has been no progress toward gay marriage or same-sex adoption; but there has not even been any retreat.” There is also a personal note: “The first Italian female prime minister does not profess to be a feminist, but she is a tough single mother who he dumped his partner without too much ceremony for having made proposals to his colleagues.”
Of course, several obstacles loom. Especially on the economic front. And there is no shortage of criticism. “Meloni has some very bad ideas about constitutional changes that would strengthen the prime minister’s power, although these are still for the future. There are also worrying signs that she is not an economic reformer at heart, unlike her predecessor, Mario Draghi Italy’s growth problems are systemic. The new government has shown little interest in promoting competition, toyed with the idea of a large tax on banks before abandoning it and is trying to diminish the role of foreign investors on boards of Italian administration. The deficit is growing dramatically and this week the OECD warned that spending cuts and tax increases will be necessary, an appeal that will fall on deaf ears”, writes the Economist.
But according to the British weekly, for now the current problems have not been caused by the executive: “No blame can so far be attributed to Meloni’s management. Nor should it yet. The recovery of the economy, hit hard by the pandemic, was destined to run out of steam and faced new headwinds, most notably the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the lack of growth is one of two clouds in an otherwise largely clear sky,” argues the Economist. “The second is a surge in irregular immigration which Meloni’s right-wing coalition is determined to curb. The number of arrivals from the Mediterranean rose to 157,652 last year, a 50% increase on 2022 and the highest figure since the peak year of 2016. The government hopes to divert some boats to detention centers in Albania. But the plan has run into a legal challenge that has yet to be resolved.”
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