The issue has been present since his victory in the Italian legislative elections and the answer to the question is a clear no. A review of his postulates and campaign promises shows that he is not. Nor will names created ad-hoc of his person as “post-fascist” or “neo-fascist”, and it will not be the government that he will lead.
In a way, the problem was created by herself, since, at the beginning of her political career, even when she was Silvio Berlusconi’s youth minister, she had expressions, including tweets, that showed understanding and even admiration for Il Duce, baseness into which other Italian politicians, of different positions, have fallen as the years go by.
Even more, a former center-left prime minister (Italia Viva) like Matteo Renzi has denied this type of journalistic accusation towards her, in this case from CNN, saying: “She is my political rival, but she is not a danger to democracy. To say that she is a fascist is completely untrue.”
She is not, nor are Trump, Bolsonaro or the Hungarian Orban. Nor was Boric’s rival Kast in Chile, who was nicknamed that way to win the second round of the presidential election. By the way, they can be described in other ways, for example, as a “Pinochetist” in the case of Kast, but they are not fascists or Nazis.
Fascism is a political doctrine, originated precisely in Italy with Mussolini and one of its best known (and murderous) variants was Hitler’s Nazism. It is taught through the university world, along with other ideologies, such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism or communism.
The damage it caused was so much that it has a very bad name, and for this reason, it is used to disqualify opponents with a very negative consequence, since attributing that persuasion to those who do not have it can produce the distorting effect that “it was not as evil” the doctrine as it is accused, when indeed it was and is.
As a political doctrine, fascism in almost all its variants was collectivist and statist, which was expressed in Benito Mussolini’s famous maxim “Everything within the State. Nothing outside the State”, which surprised no one in Italy, since he had begun his political career in the Socialist Party.
The idea of a single party was part of the creed, as well as the persecution and repression of its opponents. There was a strong racial component in their postulates, although not all of them were racist or anti-Semitic, at least not in the sense that the Nazis did in Germany and in the territories they occupied.
The desire for expansion and conquest was also present, while at the same time expressing anti-liberal, anti-democratic and anti-Christian postulates.
As a political doctrine there are ideas that have come down to our days and no one expresses it better than the validity of Nazi authors who never repented like the German jurist and political scientist Carl Schmitt, who claimed that politics was not made between adversaries but between enemies and between whose followers -whether they knew it or not- are some important ideologues who from the ultra-left tried to impose the new identity constitution on Chileans, failing in the attempt.
It does not help and it does harm to describe many of those we dislike as fascists or populists. Brothers of Italy, his party, is on the right, part of what is called in Europe the “social right” because of its postulates and among the issues that most stirred up were illegal immigration and certain traditional values, such as the importance of Italy and the family.
The coalition of which he was a part was made up of smaller groups, and by Matteo Salvini’s La Liga, former vice president and interior minister (2018-2019), and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, former three-time prime minister (1994-95). ; 2001-06; and 2008-2011), rivals who were outdone above all, by Meloni’s passionate and charismatic style and the importance attributed to traditional moral principles, to patriotism through his pride in Italianness, to what there is to add the defense of Christianity, in particular, the Catholic tradition.
Thus, he managed to prevail within the coalition, especially Salvini, who suffered a heavy defeat and low votes. As for Berlusconi, the victory expresses his return, but now, without aspiring, at least publicly, to lead the winning coalition, among others, for reasons of age.
In the 44.1% of votes obtained by this coalition there is a lot of vote that was once communist or Christian Democrat, the two great post-war parties in Italy, both disappeared as such or divided into other alternatives.
It is a conservative coalition in the Italian and European context, but in what it offered and how it is going to exercise power there may be elements of the radical right, but they are not ultra-right, nor are they populism or fascism.
If there was any doubt, there are the statements that she offered as soon as she was elected, in the sense of ratifying all her support for Ukraine as well as in relation to immigration where she repeated that “countries have the right to favor immigration that is compatible with their culture. For example, in Venezuela there are millions, they are Christians. If we need migrants, let’s get them there.”
In truth, neither Italian law, nor Europe, nor international treaties today allow him to make this distinction, let alone discriminate, but it is a powerful statement as to his intentions.
It will be a government coalition where there are convergences, but also divergences on a variety of issues that include the European Union, the Russian invasion of Ukraine (there it differs from its partners, especially in the sanctions against Russia), energy, moral values , global warming.
In relation to the European Union, Meloni has had a similar speech to the one Mrs. Thatcher had for years, in her criticism of what she defined as an anti-democratic bureaucracy not elected by anyone in Brussels and the consequent loss of national sovereignty, yes. with an important difference, since the United Kingdom contributed much more than what it received from Europe, while Italy needs help to balance its budgets, in permanent deficit.
As he progressed towards victory, Meloni abandoned the idea of an “Italexit” to leave the European Union, in favor of a discourse that has been successful for former communist countries such as Poland or Hungary, in the sense of defending the interior of the Union its national interests more aggressively and then, only later, seek common solutions with other countries.
Meloni added that his model was Portugal, which obtained concessions for an economic recovery plan, wondering “if the socialist government of Portugal did it, why can’t Italy do it?” Therefore, the European Union is an example of the limitations on its power that an alliance of these characteristics means, not only to it, but to any leader who wants radical changes.
Its promotion of conservative values led it to offer concrete measures to support an increase in the birth rate, since Italy is part of the list of countries where the birth rate decreases, with numbers that would be even more regressive if it were not for immigration. illegal.
Another issue of differentiation with Europe was the idea of creating the so-called “hot spots” to curb illegal immigration, simply by blocking the boats with immigrants, in the African ports from which they leave.
A final issue of divergence lies in the respect for international commitments already acquired in climate change, where Maloni has argued that behind her reluctance to use the word “warming” there is a different vision, since for her there is no catastrophic vision of this change, but just a simple evolution and not the end of the world.
For Meloni, Italy is a story of economic success, rejecting the idea that it would be a sick country, arguing that its problems are the consequence of today’s mistaken European policies, and that, on the contrary, Italy was a post-war success with a model exporter based on small and medium enterprises.
Will his be another short-lived government, another failed coalition? We do not know.
What we know is that neither she nor her future government are today fascists, furthermore limited by being part of Europe and by the characteristics of the coalition. Everything points to a right-wing conservative government, even radical in its rhetoric, but which is not appreciated in it or in the proposals, a supposed fascism.
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