Comment ROME — Hours after Giorgia Meloni’s party won the election in September, American conservative strategist Greg Price shared a quote on Twitter with the future Italian prime minister making an appeal. In the video, she warned of an ongoing, global assault on gender, family and religion, carried out by nameless forces seeking a world where forms of identity cease to exist. “I can’t identify myself as Italian, as a Christian, as a mother, as a woman — no!” Meloni says in the clip, from a 2019 speech. “I have to be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2.” The clip, which has been liked more than 200,000 times, has gone viral among Trump-aligned Republicans. And the reviews were raves. “She said it so beautifully,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “Spectacular,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). “A model for the Nov. 8 candidates here,” said Steve Cortes, a former Trump campaign adviser. Becoming the first far-right head of government in postwar Western Europe, Meloni has emerged as a famous point of reference for MAGA Republicans, who interpreted her rise as a confirmation of their own values and goals. In their narrative — which dominates social media and far-right media — Meloni is a truth-teller who speaks plainly about her beliefs, has not compromised in the face of the awakened left, and overcame the hysterical media that called her a fascist, a racist, and worse. The far-right leader who is changing the tone of Italy “This is someone I can relate to, because they’re doing the same thing to me,” Trump-aligned Arizona gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake, who claims the 2020 election was stolen, told Fox News. There’s no doubt that Meloni’s rise is remarkable — and if she succeeds in ruling Italy, she could open a path to power for other once-fringe figures in Europe. It has gripped the United States because, in some ways, its rhetoric mirrors that of Trump. She has relied heavily on the idea of a forgotten middle class, scorned by elites, while portraying herself as a champion of the underdog. “The narrative of the people against power,” said Maurizio Molinari, editor-in-chief of La Repubblica. “It mimics and somehow translates to the Italian audience some of the messages that helped Trump.” Molinari, who reviewed examples of right-wing US media coverage of Meloni at the request of the Washington Post, concluded: “She wins. we will win. This is their narrative.” But there are also some American misconceptions about what fueled Meloni’s rise. Italian Giorgia Meloni sets the agenda, says she has no sympathy for fascism While social media chatter among Republicans tends to focus on her outrageous cultural speeches, with the assumption that those views bolster her popularity, Meloni says her stances on such issues likely cost her votes. This summer, when a collapse of the Italian government triggered an election and opened a clear path to power, he cut the most controversial and extreme parts of the debate. He was no longer attacking the “LGBT lobby”, for example, nor was he labeling immigration as “ethnic replacement”. He also sought to explicitly reassure the establishment in Brussels and Washington that he would govern Italy with a conventional foreign policy: pro-Atlantic, anti-Kremlin. In short, he managed to do what Republicans once hoped for and never got from Trump: Mediate. However, some Americans on the right have suggested that her victory demonstrates a popular revolt against the system. After the Italian election, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson devoted much of his one-night program to Meloni, portraying Italy as a landscape “ruined” by neoliberalism and its open-border policy, with some parts of country to become “dangerous” because of immigration crime. Meloni, he said, was one of the “very few politicians … willing to say the obvious – the truth – out loud.” “This is a revolution,” Carlson said. Interview by Giorgia Meloni in the Washington Post The reality is more complicated. Italy had a rebellion but in 2018 when it handed over power to populist parties who then fought each other and squandered popularity. These failures, combined with long-standing problems—an ongoing recession, high public debt, limited job opportunities for young people—have fueled a sense of political apathy and skepticism that any political solution will work. Voter turnout in September was the lowest on record. Meloni benefited from years in opposition when she was able to draw support from her opponents on the right. But that doesn’t mean he has secured people’s loyalty. Some voters say they aren’t sure they’ll support her even a year from now. Daniele Albertazzi, an Italian-born professor of politics at the University of Surrey, noted that for three decades, between 42 percent and 48 percent of Italians voted for right-wing parties. Meloni’s party has a hard line on social issues that make his coalition different and more correct than any previous post-war government. But Meloni has also filled key cabinet posts with familiar faces from previous Silvio Berlusconi governments, a nod to the many centrists who gave her their vote. “It’s hardly a revolution,” Albertazzi said. The reasons behind the success of the extreme right in Italy For American viewers, one of the biggest talking points concerns the roots of Meloni’s party, the Brothers of Italy. Her party, formed a decade ago, is descended from an earlier group founded by supporters of Mussolini after the war. The policies of the Brothers of Italy are not fascist, and Meloni herself has said that she “never felt sympathy” for such beliefs. But her party has included a slew of members who publicly gave fascist salutes or celebrated the rise of Mussolini. Her government also failed to act when several thousand Italians recently marched with fascist symbols in Predappio, Mussolini’s hometown. In Republican eyes, international media accounts of Meloni were troubling, unfairly linking her to fascism. Several TV segments on Trump-aligned media channels have run a recap with jaw-dropping headlines or MSNBC clips. “[It’s] the left-wing media is doing what it does best, labeling common-sense conservatives as far-right,” a Newsmax anchor said, before interviewing Rep. Ralph Norman (RS.C.). “We’ve seen the same thing happen at home, with MAGA supporters.” “Giorgia Meloni is a breath of fresh air,” Norman said afterward. “It’s a preview of future attractions” in the US midterm elections in November. Filippo Trevisan, an Italian-born associate professor at American University who specializes in political communication and reviewed several U.S. media excerpts at The Post’s request, said that neither the left nor the right in America have been able to “really represent the turn that Italian politics has taken”. The integration of the far right of the West is complete Meloni, for her part, has worked for years to build ties with Republicans and spoke in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando. In an August interview with The Post, she deflected a question about whether she felt more aligned with Trump’s wing of the party or those opposed to his ideological takeover. “I’m not interested in getting into the debate within the Republican Party,” he said, “because it would be too complicated for me.” Notably, at a time when the notion of electoral fraud has run so deep into the Republican Party, Meloni never suggested — before or after the vote — that Italy’s parliamentary elections might be in doubt. When the result gave her the chance to be appointed prime minister by Italy’s president, Meloni showed respect for her predecessor, centrist Mario Draghi. And when he spoke last week before parliament, he celebrated the smooth transition of power. “That’s how it should be in major democracies,” he said. Stefano Pitrelli contributed to this report.
