Meloni, beyond Italy

Giorgia Meloni’s victory in Sunday’s Italian election is breaking the tectonic plates of European politics. “We will watch,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and she has reasons for that. In Italy, the third economy in the eurozone, a far-right government opens an internal front in the Union At a time when the European project is facing the war in Ukraine and the war started by Vladimir Putin’s Russia is facing the effects on the economy and daily life.

The Ukrainian crisis is the fourth consecutive crisis that has affected the European project in a little over a decade. (The Great Depression, Brexit, the pandemic and now war) In a context marked by the Union’s own internal tensions: the effects of expansion to the East, the discontent of some European citizens towards the Union, and the rise of nationalism in many European countries (return, if left). Meloni’s victory poses a major challenge in this regard, not because it was exceptional (far-right, conservative and nationalist parties are growing in 16 of the 27 EU countries, and their influence is felt in politics across the continent). ) but precisely because it is already very difficult to treat the far right as a reactive, punctual and controllable movement through policies like cordon sanitaire. Meloni in this sense symbolizes a bath of reality: Europe is part of Europe, on the far right, or at least a commune with its social, economic and political prescriptions.

Warsaw-Budapest-Rome axis

Italy is not just any country in the Union. It’s not just about its economic weight (which it is), but also its political and symbolic significance. Italy, the founding country of the UnionIt is not a country from the former Soviet trajectory that has joined the common European project through a dizzying (and flawed) expansion eastward. Italy is the West, the heart of Europe and the engine of the EU. When it comes to Europeanism, Italy was seen as one of us, even in the most naive sense. Since Sunday it is at least legitimate to doubt.

The coming to power of the extreme right with a nativist and nationalist discourse and while it has tempered its anti-European, or at least Eurosceptic, campaign, it constitutes a failure of European construction in this century incapable of presenting an exciting project to broad strata of European society. Meloni has declared himself a fan of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, whether the Warsaw-Budapest-Rome axis some predicted will come true (though European funds have weighed in at around €200,000 million). Like the pragmatic turn of the Brothers Italy the much talked about in the campaign is crystallizing, but the tone of the political discourse in the EU is changing with Meloni’s victory. Defenders of illiberal democracy celebrate thanks to a country where the weight of historical memory (Mussolini’s fascism) no longer crushes the wings of its heirs.

From Marine Le Pen to Macarena Olona?

Part of the European Left, Social Democracy and the Christian Democratic-rooted Right They have been warning for years about the advent of the far right. They argue that it should be tackled (cordons sanitaires) and that its normalization should be strictly avoided. But the far right is already normalized. So much so that in some countries (France, Italy) there is even more than one party trying to hunt those voters. In this sense, Meloni’s victory gives strong messages to countries such as France and Spain. (where many believe Santiago Abascal got the face of Matteo Salvini, one of the losers of the election) and even Germany: EU Western countries can win ultras in the pillars of the European project. Whether they can manage (like Donald Trump in the United States or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil) and above all, time will tell. If the institutions of liberal democracy – both national and European – can meet this challenge. Steve Bannon bets he didn’t.

and the wolf came

After all these years of warning about the advent of the far right, Finally the wolf came, speaks Italian and is a woman. Meloni’s victory confirms, if necessary, that the far right is no longer hasty, but is part of the European electorate. Unlike the generalized analysis, a voter who is not merely reactive would not vote for the ultras merely as a protest against the trend or the traditional parties. The consequences of the 2008 crisis and the excesses of globalization are not a theoretical exercise, they are obvious.: nationalism, nativism, a return to a mythical past, rejection of liberal principles, opposition to feminism and anything that sounds like LGTBI rights… From Trup’s MAGA to Meloni Made in Italy.

A part of Europe does not vote for the extreme right out of reaction and protest; Part of Europe votes for the far right for sharing its program, From the heavy hand of immigration to abortion restrictions through a powerful State that does not relinquish its sovereignty to Brussels. The problem is that this program, beyond ad hoc pragmatic turns, is incompatible with the European project. Warsaw and above all Budapest, show it. But also London.

Berlusconi, moderate: democratic corruption

There are general European and global trends, but each country is its own universe. Victory of Mussolini’s heirs in Italy not pregnant for several days. Italy has long been an abracadabra laboratory for the trivialization of politics; distance from institutions and representatives of their components; corruption; disintegration of the party system; The constant warning that Mussolini’s offspring are back. For years, the rhetoric of fear has been heard in Italy, to the point where Italian society has developed antibodies (and not incidentally, historical levels of abstention). Today, Italy is a country where Silvio Berlusconi can be said to be moderate at the centre. The same symbols can be seen in many other European countries, with fine-tuning adapted to the unique characteristics of each country. Plainizing politics (from the politics of spectacle to exaggerated rhetoric of fear, including disrespect to the electorate) is the ideal fertilizer for populism.

Source: Informacion

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