ROME – “If this ends in fire, then we should all burn together.”
These ominous words are not from an apocalyptic poem: They are from a politician’s memoirs. Giorgia Meloni, leader of Italy’s far-right Brotherhood party, opened her 2021 book with this uncanny call to arms, away from the more obscene style favored by most politicians. But then Mrs. Meloni, whose party bears the emblem adopted by the defeated lieutenants of the Mussolini regime and describes herself as “post-fascist”, is hardly a mainstream political figure.
At least, she never was. However, just two months after Ms. Meloni published her best-selling memoir, her party topped national opinion polls for the first time. Since then, it has continued to boast more than 20 percent supported and provided the only major opposition to Mario Draghi’s technocratic alliance. On Wednesday, in a sudden turn among the events, government collapse. Early elections, due in the fall, could pave the way for the Brotherhood of Italy to become the first far-right party to lead a major eurozone economy. For Europe and the country, it will be a real seismic event.
It would also mark a significant increase for a party that in 2018 won just 4% of the vote. At the heart of it is Mrs. Meloni herself, who skillfully blends her fear of the decline of civilization with legendary anecdotes about her relationship with her family, God, and Italy itself. Dialogue with popular culture and love to refer to JRR Tolkien – her memoir line, from an Ed Sheeran song on the soundtrack of a film in the Hobbit series, combines the two – Ms. Meloni herself consider himself an unusual ordinary earth politician.
But the Italian Brotherhood not only thanks to its success but downplays its message. It is also the beneficiary of the breaking down of many barriers between the traditional centre-right and the far-right rebels, taking place across Western Europe and the US. Indebted, socially polarized and politically unstable, Italy is just the country where this process has progressed the most. If you want to know what the future might hold, it’s a good place to look.
This is not the first time Italy, where elites often seek out national models abroad, has really taken the lead. Of course, this was the first country occupied by the fascists, which fell to Mussolini 100 years ago. If that experience reveals how the defense of liberal democracy can crumble, Italy will continue to show how much change the genre can hold. In the post-war period, it pioneered Christian Democracy, a center of clericalism for both conservative and more socialist forces, and played host to insurgency. innovation on the left.
The end of the Cold War was perhaps the country’s clearest prediction of the future: After the complete collapse of the previously dominant mass parties, the political landscape was soon conquered by Silvio Berlusconi. As a billionaire who poses as an anti-establishment pagan, he has used his media platform to gain a loyal base of supporters, strengthening the terms of public debate. declare.
In this constellation are the Brothers of Italy. In many ways, it is nothing special: Like other far-right parties across Europe, it has its roots in fascism or collaborators and persisted for a long time on the margins of national politics. . During the 1990s, under Mr. Berlusconi, post-fascists were allowed to enter grassroots government roles. In recent years, however, Ms. Meloni’s party has become the sole leading force of the right, commanding a so-called centre-right electoral coalition that includes the far-right League and Forza Italia. At the heart of that rise, for all the party’s focus on tax cuts and pro-business negotiations, is Italy’s endemic economic unrest.
While aggravated by the pandemic, it has been going on for a long time. Economic growth plane Over the past two decades, high public debt has hindered efforts to revive the country’s destiny. Youth unemployment remains high and inequality between regions is widening. In this atmosphere of decay, where prosperity seems unbelievable, the message of the Italian Brothers – that national salvation can only be found in persecuting migrants and protecting Traditional family – has found a receptive audience.
And not just in Italy. For example, the Vox party in Spain, a far-right force dedicated to apologizing to the Franco regime that has surged as much as 20% in the polls, cites Ms. Meloni as an inspiration. Appearing at a Vox campaign event in June, Ms. Meloni neatly summed up the contours of their shared politics, thunder in spanish, “Yes to secure the border! Do not let massive immigration! ” The speech – reached its climax when Mrs. Meloni shouted, “Yes, our civilization! And not for those who want to destroy it! ” – most likely given by Marine Le Pen, for whom the National Rally is now the main force of the French right.
Even more than Ms. Le Pen, Ms. Meloni is having a hard time asserting key party credentials. This in particular represents a steadfast Atlanticist foreign policy – committed to the European Union and NATO and staunchly opposed to Russia and China – even as the party pursues a political agenda. domestic reaction. There, however, it sometimes makes concessions to politeness. When Forza Nuova’s neo-Nazis fiercely attacked union offices last October, the Brothers of Italy separated themselves from the group, abstaining from a parliamentary proposal to ban it simultaneously. condemn “all totalism. “
But there are also warrior subcultures that lurk under the label of “post-fascist”. Last fall, a documentary caused a national stir with allegations of money laundering, illegal campaign financing and ties with neo-Nazis within the party organization in Milan. The film shows the close cooperation of the leader of the Italian Brotherhood in the European Parliament with Roberto Jonghi Lavarini, a neo-Nazi fighter known as the “black baron”.
Ignoring such adverse associations, the party brushed off its founding credentials and extended its appeal far beyond the ranks of Mussolini’s nostalgics. Neo-fascism street violence is at a much lower level than in the 1970s, never mind the 1920s. However, the fact that the characters clearly see themselves as heirs to the tradition of fascism takeover broader rights is an alarming development – one that is far from limited to Italy.
Maybe we won’t all burn together in the fire. But if the right takes over the government, in Italy or elsewhere, surely some of us will.
