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“Everything that represents us is under attack: our freedom, our rights, the sovereignty of our nations, the welfare of our ,families and our children’s education. The only way to be rebellious is to preserve who we are, the only way to be rebellious is to be conservative.” – Giorgia Meloni.
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Progressivism today weeps and dresses in black and blue. Yet, if it were consistent with its ideological premises, the left should be celebrating, because a woman has just made major history in Italy: Giorgia Meloni.
The leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party is the first woman in the history of Italy to become prime minister. An unprecedented milestone for a woman who has been in Italian politics for years, both in the Chamber of Deputies and as a minister in Berlusconi’s government, and today stands as one of the great leaders of the next decade.
Meloni not only won but swept, winning the vote of even the Italian workers who historically voted for the left and today undoubtedly sided with a proposal that is socially conservative and economically pro-market. A political platform that, although the modern left and bureaucrats in Brussels insist on branding it as “neo-fascist“, “post-fascist” and “ultra-right”, proposes a defense of values and ideals that in other decades would not have been controversial: God, Homeland, and Family.
The fact is that Giorgia Meloni opposes everything that progressivism—from the U.S. to Europe and from the East to Latin America— defends: abortion, gender ideology, open borders, the vilification of the traditional family, and attacks on Christianity.
“There are no mediations possible, either you say yes or you say no. Yes to the natural family, no to LGBT lobbies. Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology. Yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death. Yes to the universality of the cross, no to Islamist violence. Yes to secure borders, no to mass migration,” Meloni said at the top of her lungs in Andalusia, Spain, during a campaign rally for the conservative Vox party.
The Prime Minister has been strongly challenged for her speeches against illegal immigration and, in particular, the “Islamization” of Europe. A migratory phenomenon that, for her, directly endangers all values and traditions of Western society.
In the same way, Giorgia Meloni is “disruptive” to current progressivism, as she is a woman of faith and fervently Catholic, who has no problem defending her religious beliefs at a time when the Church is being questioned from various fronts.
The media does not forgive her
Western media, which for years has showered praise on politicians such as Angela Merkel or the never-voted-for Ursula von der Leyen (who recently threatened Italians if they dared to vote for Meloni), has actively collaborated to damage the image of the Fratelli d’Italia leader, with absurd comparisons to fascist leader Benito Mussolini or the classic “radical” labels handed out to politicians who oppose the progressive agenda.
Where does the media draw from to call Meloni a fascist? Well, when she was young and starting her political militancy, she signed up and became a leader of the fascist “Fronte della Gioventù” youth movement.
However, the leader of Fratelli d’Italia herself has publicly disassociated herself from fascist ideals and has assured that Italian society did the same. And as The Economist said in a profile on her before the elections, “then plenty of people who are now moderate left-wingers belonged to Communist parties at the same age.”
“The Italian right has consigned fascism to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the shameful laws against Jews,” were the words of the now PM months ago. “I have read that the victory of Brothers of Italy in the September elections would be a disaster, towards an authoritarian tipping point, Italy’s exit from the euro and other nonsense. None of this is true.”
22/09/2022.- Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) leader Giorgia Meloni is interviewed on Rai 1 television program ‘Porta a Porta’ in Rome, Italy, September 22, 2022. (EFE)
But beyond words, one only has to read Giorgia Meloni’s policies to understand her ideas: controlled immigration, promotion of tourism, defense of Italian culture, free market, and low taxes to help companies and workers in a context of global recession, improvement of the agricultural sector, protection of the environment, energy self-sufficiency. A common sense program that is no different from absolutely typical conservative politics.
In fact, this very plan, simple and coherent, changed the course of Fratelli d’Italia in just a few years. In 2018 it was an almost marginal party, barely reaching 4.3% of the vote, and now, together with the rest of its coalition, it is the political party chosen by the majority of Italians who got fed up with governments too close to Brussels and unable to solve the country’s basic problems.
For example, Italy is now going through a major problem: demographic winter. Aware of this, Fratelli d’Italia is promoting a program to allow South Americans of Italian descent to return to their country in a controlled manner.
This migration, the party argues, would not be problematic because Hispanics can adapt much more easily to Italian society than Muslims could. However, the international press has chosen to ignore the context and demonize the ideas of Meloni and her party.
Giorgia Meloni and the word as an unbreakable weapon
If anything characterizes the new Italian Prime Minister, it is not only her political patience but also her great oratory capacity, since few politicians, in simple words, are capable of exposing and denouncing the world’s problems with such clarity and lucidity.
Why do they hate her?
Because she understands.
"Because when I am only a number. When I no longer have an identity or roots. Then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators. The perfect consumer." pic.twitter.com/yiwEevv7V9
— Oriental Fury (@FuryOriental) September 26, 2022
But her rhetorical skills have not only been used in fertile ground, at rallies in support of her, but also in pressing situations. For example, when an LGBT activist, in the middle of the campaign, got on stage to criticize her and tell her that she had the right to get married. Instead of having the guards remove him (something standard in such circumstances) the premier listened to the young man and congratulated him for bravely daring to stand up for his beliefs even though they are totally opposed to those she promotes. She also told him, “you already have a civil union.”
🇮🇹 | Un activista LGBT se subió al escenario para confrontar con la próxima Primer Ministro italiana Giorgia Meloni en un acto de campaña en Cagliari.
"Ya tenes la unión civil" le dijo.@GiorgiaMeloni @FratellidItalia pic.twitter.com/lM6T124UPD— Candela Sol 🇦🇷 (@CandelaSolSilva) September 4, 2022
“You want things and I have the right to think differently. It’s a democracy, if you don’t agree, we won’t agree. And we respect each other by not agreeing,” Meloni told the militant, before withdrawing and asking the audience for applause for his “courage.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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