With Giorgia Meloni as PM, Italy veers far right

Italy’s shift to the right after last week’s elections is in line with the political trend seen elsewhere in the continent in the recent past. The country will have its first far right majority government since 1945, when a coalition led by a party, the Brothers of Italy, and including two other parties, is sworn in. The leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, will also be the country’s first woman Prime Minister, but it is the politics of the new leader that will attract more attention than her gender. Her party descended from a neo-fascist political formation and she is an unabashed defender of fascism and Mussolini. Meloni has said that Mussolini was a ‘good politician’ and ‘all that he did, he did for Italy.’ Her views on most issues are radical and rightist and at odds with the mainstream politics of the European Union (EU).

Meloni has advocated anti-immigrant and extremely nationalist, protectionist and Eurosceptic views. But the new government will not be able to implement a rightist agenda in Italy for the time being or in the near future because the country is firmly grounded in the European Union system. The economy is in distress and Italy needs nearly $200 billion of EU funds in the next four years to avert a recession. The funds will be conditional on implementation of the EU’s social, political and economic norms. The country’s Constitution, which is anti-fascist and has safeguards against the rise of another fascist dictator, will be another constraint. Meloni has already moderated her positions on some issues, but a rightist government will have to show that it is different and do some posturing. There are likely to be problems within the coalition as the constituent parties have differences on some issues. Though Meloni has supported Ukraine in the ongoing war, her coalition partners have a soft corner for Russia and have opposed the sanctions against Moscow imposed by the West.

Far right parties are on the rise in other countries of Europe too. In the Swedish general election earlier this month, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democratic Party was voted out and a coalition of right and far-right parties is set to form the government. In the French Presidential election in April, rightist Marine Le Pen secured over 40% of the vote. Parties right of the centre have gained influence in other countries too. There are rightist governments in power in Poland and Hungary. These parties have come to power by exploiting disgruntlement over economic issues and disenchantment with the ways of politics, and by making populist promises. Europe's liberal democratic tradition is facing its biggest challenge now.