By Veronica Marcone
On September 25th, 2022, Italy held parliamentary elections to form a new government. To be able to govern in Italy, a party or coalition has to reach 50%+1 of the votes in their favor on the national level. The center-right wing coalition was able to clench 44% of the votes, with a strong majority coming from the Fratelli D’Italia party (Brothers of Italy) at about 26%. This is despite an all-time low of voter affluence of 63,91% of all voting-able citizens. So, excluding all people who abstained from voting, the center-right reached around 68,8% of votes in their favor, which is about 12 million people.
Fratelli D’Italia is led by Giorgia Meloni who just became the first woman Prime Minister of Italy, but the reactions abroad were not positive as one might expect. An array of international media outlets have given causes for concern with their eye-catching article titles. The media itself can have a fundamental role in shaping the views of people who consume their content. It can often be biased or omit necessary information that should be shared to the public. What are the claims that the media are making in this situation that might shape how their consumers view contemporary Italian politics and are there consequences to them? Is there anything that should be fixed in the way the media publishes content so that the view of international politics and politicians isn’t distorted or biased?
The New York Times published a briefing declaring Italy to be “the largest country in Western Europe to elect a far-right government in decades” and defined Giorgia Meloni as the “first far-right leader since Mussolini”. CNN and BBC both claim that Italy has elected their “most far-right government since WW2”. The terms ‘fascist’ and ‘far-right’ have been associated with the Prime Minister also by The Guardian, France 24, the International Press Institute, CNBC, Euronews, and many others.
The new Italian Prime Minister’s main points in the agenda are the following: her and her party, unlike the rest of the center-right parties, are pro-EU, pro-Eurozone and Pro-NATO. They are interested in maintaining all treaties and alliances that Italy currently upholds, especially considering defending Ukraine from the tyranny of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meloni had to declare her Ukrainian stance repeatedly after coalition colleague Silvio Berlusconi was recently found to have made sympathetic remarks towards Putin and Russia, making a lot of Italians confused. She insists on diversifying the energy sources in order not to fall into the trap of Putin’s blackmailing on the prices of gas. Nuclear energy, which has been outlawed in Italy since 1987, is one of the main ways she desires to accomplish this along with renewables. The new Prime Minister focuses a lot on the younger generation and their education, planning to promote cultural, artistic, and physical activities as a form of overall well-being, and working on stopping and preventing the use of illegal drugs (specifically Cannabis).
The main worries arise in Meloni’s strict anti-illegal immigration laws and her heavy preference towards the ‘traditional family’ formed by two parents of the opposite sex. This excludes protection of the LGBT+ community and the possibility of same-sex adoption. Her stance is explained by Italy having the lowest birth rate in the EU and the desire to build back up an aging population. There is also concern over the right to abortion that has been raised since the US overturned Roe v. Wade but, according to the PM’s claims, the abortion law in Italy will not be touched and she has little to no interest in discussing it when questioned.
Having said this, the terms that are utilized to describe her seem somewhat hyperbolic considering what Meloni’s Political agenda actually includes. It is true that some of her stances are debatable and socially detrimental but juxtaposing Meloni with fascism and authoritarianism is far-fetched. First and foremost, Italy is a constitutional democracy, and the current laws wouldn’t allow for any authoritarian regime to take control of the country since the PM does not hold such power to change the form of government.
Secondly, the use of this terminology (Mussolini, far-right, fascist) degrades the severity of these words. Historically, these terms hold a lot of weight: they are connected to the lowest period of the country that was saturated with racism, classism, ableism, antisemitism, and all sorts of abuse and violence directed towards the people that were not considered Italian. The fascist ideology cost the lives of millions of innocent people, and because of that, terms associated with it should never be used so lightly. By doing so, people will start associating these terms with contemporary politicians and will not understand how insulting and dangerous they could be.
Here is an excerpt of her first parliamentary speech as PM discussing authoritarian regimes:
“Freedom. Freedom and democracy are the distinctive elements of contemporary European civilization, in which I have always recognized myself and, thus, even here, despite what has been instrumentally claimed, I have never had sympathy or felt close to any antidemocratic regime whatsoever; towards no regime, including fascism, exactly how I have always been of the opinion that the racial laws of 1938 have been the lowest point of Italian history, a shame that will stain our people for ever” (Meloni, 2022)
The way international media reacted to the election is also causing severe damage to the image of Italy. The more negatively portrayed the new government is, the harder it will be to build relationships with other countries. Nations around the world will have a prejudice towards Meloni and, consequently, will be less likely to engage in positive communication. This can be damaging both internally and externally: it can prevent the creation of positive political and/or economic alliances causing Italy to turn bitter towards her neighbors and all the governments that are not interested in establishing contact with them.
The French government has been vocal about the Italian election declaring that they will be paying close attention to Italy not breaking the rule of law and denying basic human rights. Their strict anti-immigration and anti-homeless laws and treatments have been challenging human rights too. They are the first to be known to have taken harsh measures towards immigrants by arresting them and have also used scrapers to raze homeless camps to the ground.
An array of other concerns regarding the leading party comes from its associations to fascism through symbols and history. Historically, the political party was born from a post-fascist party after the war, and no matter what, there are things in one country’s history that you can’t simply get rid of. It will remain a permanent stain on the origin of the party. The worry is more understandable in this case, even with the symbols of the party, but they could be interpreted, maybe optimistically, as simple political tools. The main example is the eternal flame on the logo of the brothers of Italy party which is the same symbol found on Mussolini’s tomb. From a political mindset, the decision not to get rid of it could be strategic: Prime Minister Meloni declared on multiple occasions that she condemned all antidemocratic regimes including fascism, but the unfortunate reality is that millions of Italians to this day romanticize the idea of fascism and Mussolini and do, unfortunately, count as voters in elections. In order to get a hold of those votes in the recent elections and to prevent those voters to choose the more extreme right parties), it is likely that Meloni chooses not to completely detach from those minute details that hold ties with fascism.
To sum it up, the situation can be looked at from various political perspectives and, like all new governments, some things will improve, others will cause the country to go backwards. This specific situation will make Italy, which is already a conservative country, stagnate in a socially outdated ideology and will not progress for the next few years but there is no point in exaggerating a negative situation abroad and causing world leaders to start being concerned and hesitant about communicating and creating relationships with this new government; it would simply make the situation worse than it is as Italy would close off.
Diplomacy, right now, is a necessary tool to ensure Italian citizens a less bumpy journey in the next five years. If so many countries, especially Italy’s European neighbors, have been worried about the repercussions of the election, it is important to maintain diplomatic relations with the PM. Putting her in one corner will actually calcify the already delicate situation and make her conclude that the EU is actually not a good economic and political deal for the country. The Chief of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen has warned Italy to uphold democratic principles without being too explicit or authoritative and also somewhat attempting to stay open towards creating relationships: "My approach is that whatever democratic government is willing to work with us, we're working together". This declaration is one small step towards the right direction and mentality. International leaders should maintain in order to move forwards with entertaining diplomatic relations with Italy. Although some other comments by the EC President may have irritated coalition member Matteo Salvini, who responded negatively to the declarations via Twitter, the PM seems to not have made any major comment about them, implying her indifference towards it.
As long as International leaders are willing to discuss openly with Meloni, it is unlikely that anything more than poor economic decisions will be made in her five year mandate. The media’s role here is to report news not only in the most unbiased way possible but to also ensure that all sides of international interactions are mentioned so people can have a well-rounded understanding of these political situations. It does not seem plausible enough to fear for human rights considering both the current situation Italy is in and the few recent decrees that have been put in place, which are of economical nature. It is also still important to remember that no matter what, there are laws that the EU has put into place and those are safeguarding rights in every country in Europe, or at least try to.
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