parliamentary election
Meloni wants to give Italy back “dignity and pride”.
Fratelli d’Italia’s Giorgia Meloni is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister. photo
© Gregorio Borgia/AP/dpa
The electoral victory of the right in Italy presents Europe with new uncertainties in times of crisis. There is great satisfaction among the allies of Giorgia Meloni’s party, which is rooted in fascism.
After the triumph of the radical right in the elections in Italy, concern is spreading in Europe about the country’s future course. Election winner Giorgia Meloni from the far-right Fratelli d’Italia initially addressed her word exclusively to the Italians, who had entrusted the legal alliance she led with important responsibility.
“Now it will be our job not to disappoint them and to do our utmost to restore dignity and pride to the nation,” Meloni wrote on Twitter on Monday. Right-wing allies reacted with satisfaction to the outcome of the election.
The 45-year-old Roman woman is likely to become Italy’s first female prime minister if the Fratelli agree on a government coalition with their partners, who have clearly lost favor with the voters.
Meloni announces a tough hand against Mediterranean migrants
In terms of foreign policy, Meloni is considered pro-Western and a supporter of NATO. She emphasizes her support for Ukraine, which is being attacked by Russia, which many also attribute to her ties to the Polish ruling party PiS. Meloni is also known for her criticism of the EU institutions. In Brussels, she wants to renegotiate the conditions of the Corona reconstruction fund. She has also announced a hard hand against Mediterranean migrants. Meloni opposes progressive demands such as the right to be adopted by same-sex partners. She rejects gender issues.
Your party is rooted in fascism. Together with the right-wing populist Lega (almost 9 percent) and the conservative Forza Italia (a good 8 percent), the Fratelli get a good 44 percent of the votes. Because of a peculiarity in the electoral system, the alliance is assured of an absolute majority of seats in parliament.
The divided center-left camp failed to stop the right. The head of the Social Democrats, Enrico Letta, announced his resignation from the party leadership after the election defeat on Monday.
Right-wingers in Europe cheer
The right in Europe cheered: France’s right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen tweeted her congratulations and wrote that Meloni had withstood “the threats of an anti-democratic and arrogant European Union”. AfD politicians and the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also congratulated.
The federal government was initially reluctant to assess the strengthening of the right in Italy. Italy is a Europe-friendly country. “And we assume that this will not change,” said Deputy Government Spokesman Wolfgang Büchner.
Others became clearer. The fact that Italy is likely to be governed “by an alliance of neo-fascists, right-wing nationalists and right-wing populists” is a heavy burden for cohesion in Europe, said the deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Achim Post.
The European countries must insist that European values such as respect for human dignity, equality and the rule of law remain and are guaranteed, warned the Vice President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, in the Funke newspapers. The CDU would also have preferred a different election outcome, as General Secretary Mario Czaja told RTL/ntv.
It will be a few weeks before Italy has a new government. Coalition negotiations can only begin once the new parliament has started work in mid-October.