“We are emerging from these elections with a strengthened government, a counter-trend in Europe. Among the great nations, we are the country with the strongest government!” The President of the Italian Council Giorgia Meloni analyzed the results the day after her resounding victory in the European elections. “The only thing that interests me is to obtain results for the Italians and for that I will do everything so that the Europe of the coming years is different from the one we have known. A Europe ultimately capable of doing the things we need and not dealing with matters that do not concern it.”
With 28.9% of the vote, Fratelli d’Italia, the post-fascist party of Giorgia Meloni, strengthens its hold on the country a little more, garnering a result slightly higher than that of the legislative elections of 2022. But the head of the Italian government also comes out personally strengthened, because she won her bet. Candidate in the five electoral colleges of the peninsula, registered on the lists as “Giorgia”, she won 2.3 million preference votes. An electoral treasure that she will be able to brandish in Italy as in Europe.
“The mother of reforms”
Giorgia Meloni personalized this election, she transformed it into a plebiscite on the action of her government. She crushed her two allies in the government, Matteo Salvini of La Lega (far right), and Antonio Tajani of Forza Italia. In the northern regions, lands of La Lega for forty years, the flame of the neofascists of Fratelli d’Italia garnered an average of 35% of the votes, thus confirming the old Roman adage which says that voters ride the chariot of the winner. “After two years of government practically, in the most complicated situation at the international level that Italy has ever gone through, we can say that we have accomplished a masterpiece”welcomes Giorgia Meloni’s entourage, without humiliating the allies who remained far behind, to avoid any internal shock within the executive.
This vote will allow Ms. Meloni to move forward without obstacle in what she calls “the mother of all reforms”, that is to say the direct election of the President of the Council of Ministers. A very controversial constitutional reform because it affects the sacrosanct balances desired by the founding fathers of the Italian Republic after the period of the fascist dictatorship to precisely avoid the return of a single man or, in this case, of a woman alone, in power.
For its part, the Democratic Party led by Elly Schlein, another big winner of this election with more than 24% of the votes, becomes the left-wing alternative to Giorgia Meloni, which heralds a relentless battle.
The Italian exception in Europe
This Thursday, the eyes of the world will be focused on the President of the Italian Council. In the heavenly setting of Borgo Egnazia, in Puglia, she will receive the heads of state of the G7 for a three-day summit. Faced with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the two losers of this election, she will be able to play the card of the stability of her executive as a guarantee of her international credibility. “The European wind which is blowing strongly to the right, and even to the extreme right, could provoke a revolution and Giorgia Meloni will want to be the protagonist”, judge Monica Guerzoni of the daily Corriere della Sera. “She knows perfectly well that the left will try to isolate her in Europe, and that numerically her party will not tip the scales for the nomination at the head of the Commission. But for Giorgia Meloni, at this level, votes are not counted, but weighed!”
Italy divided on anti-fascism: the government “uses a sneaky strategy, weakening acquired rights”
Giorgia Meloni has demonstrated her political skill in Italy, she will test it in Europe, and a rapprochement with the Frenchwoman Marine Le Pen and her National Rally can no longer be ruled out. “A government different from that of Mr. Macron would necessarily be good news,” already affirmed Francesco Lollobrigida on Sunday evening, the Minister of Agriculture and brother-in-law of the President of the Council.
The latter did everything to erase her extremist and neo-fascist label, presenting herself as a conservative. A change of image which could allow it to distribute the cards in Europe.
