Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Italian extreme right

Giorgia Meloni was born by the hair. Her mother, who already had another daughter, had decided to have an abortion because she had ended her relationship with her father, who would end up abandoning the family. The woman seemed so convinced that she even went to the clinic on an empty stomach where they were going to cause the termination of her pregnancy, but at the last moment she changed her mind, crossed the street and chose to enter a bar, where she had a cappuccino and a croissant for breakfast and to celebrate so his second daughter was going to come into the world. This anecdote and many others are told by Meloni herself in ‘I am Giorgia’, the book published in Italy last May in which the leader of the far-right party Fratelli d’Italia (FdI, Brothers of Italy) presents her more human side, thus trying to whitewash the neo-fascist past of its political formation.

The strategy has been a success, since in June FdI became the first party in the country in terms of voting intention, according to polls, surpassing the League of Matteo Salvini, its main ally in the conservative bloc but at the same time its biggest rival. when it comes to seducing right-wing voters. Although now the first place in the polls is held by the Democratic Party (center left), FdI follows in the footsteps of a few tenths, like the League, which suggests that these last two parties would lead the way in a future Government Italian if next year, as some analysts fear, the broad coalition led by Mario Draghi blows up and early elections are called.

But who is Giorgia Meloni? She explained it herself to the Spanish on October 10, when she participated in a political act in Madrid of Vox, a party with which she shares a group in the European Parliament. In hesitant Spanish, he bellowed as he beat his chest: “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian! They can’t take it from me! ‘ Meloni thus translated into Spanish the phrase in Italian that has given him the most success so far in his political career. After pronouncing them at a rally, these words became a musical success in 2019 after two young Milanese DJs put an electronic base on it. Far from being scandalized by it, Meloni knew how to ride the wave of popularity in her favor.

44 years old and raised in the popular Roman neighborhood of Garbatella, the leader of Fratelli d’Italia has been in politics since her early youth, when she was part of the student movement of the National Alliance party, heir to the neo-fascist group MSI. Tired of being reminded of those roots, Meloni defends time and again the re-founding that, according to her, has completed the Italian extreme right. “There is no fascist, racist or anti-Semitic nostalgia in FdI’s DNA. There is no room for any of this. In our DNA is the rejection of any past, present and future regime. And there is nothing in my life, nor in the history of the right wing that I represent, of which I should be ashamed or for which I have to apologize, “he declared last September in an interview with the newspaper ‘Corriere della It will be’.

Despite these words, there is evidence that in the ranks of the Italian right there are still those who continue to see fascism favorably. The last to prove it was Enrico Michetti, the conservative candidate in the recent municipal elections in Rome, handpicked by Meloni. Defending himself against accusations of being far-right, Michetti commented: “I am a Christian Democrat. If he were a fascist, he would have said so, what is the problem? ” He was also not very correct in talking about the Holocaust, as he assured that it was remembered more than other persecutions because the Jews “have banks and belong to the lobby capable of deciding the fate of the planet.”

Free field

Giorgia Meloni, of course, prefers to tiptoe on these issues, which generate revulsion in the moderate voter, to focus her strategy on criticizing the Draghi government. Politically, it is for FdI the easiest position, since the other parties in the Parliament of Rome are part of the very broad coalition led by the former president of the European Central Bank. Meloni has thus been left free of the entire opposition field, which he has taken advantage of to rise in the polls and make his party grow also in the north of the country, the bastion of the League, and not only in the center and the south, where the best returns were usually achieved by FdI.

“In addition to being the only political force that is not in the Government, which allows it to seduce voters of the League or the 5-Star Movement who are dissatisfied with the decisions of the Executive, Meloni is also successful because of his personal abilities. She is a direct woman with a very clear position: the criticism of globalization, manifested in issues such as immigration and relocation, “says Marco Almagisti, professor of political science at the University of Padua.

In his opinion, there is no need to panic if Fratelli d’Italia is the main party in a future Italian government. “It will take a broad coalition and a very complex institutional party to reach that stage. It is also likely that the position of prime minister and the main portfolios will go to the more moderate part of the center right. The role that the head of state plays then will be key, as well as international pressure so that there is no sovereign leadership in the government.