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Giorgia Meloni Alamy Stock Photo

Analysis What will its first far-right leader since WWII mean for Italy?

Sofia Ammassari and Duncan McDonnell look at the shock political shift of Italy to the far-right and ask what it means for the future.

“UNA VITTORIA STORICA” – a historic victory. That’s how the website of one of Italy’s major newspapers, the Corriere della Sera, reacted to the exit polls released after voting closed in Italy’s general election on Sunday night.

With a predicted vote share of between 40-45%, the right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni looks on course to secure at least 230 of the 400 seats in the Lower House, giving it a clear majority.

Meloni’s party, Brothers of Italy, was the big winner on the right, with various agencies estimating it at around 25% of the vote. This was more than the combined total of her two main allies, as Matteo Salvini’s League was tipped to receive approximately 8-9%, with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia just below that.

In just four years, Brothers of Italy has gone from minor to major player on the right. In 2018, they took 4.4% compared to the League’s 17.4% and Forza Italia’s 14%. And, if we look further back, Italy’s right-wing coalition has moved from having been dominated for over 20 years by a centre-right populist party (Forza Italia), to being dominated now by a far-right populist one (Brothers of Italy).

Brothers of Italy’s victory represents several firsts. Italy will have its first woman prime minister. And both Italy and Western Europe will have their first far-right majority government since the fall of Mussolini and the end of the Second World War.

Who is Giorgia Meloni?

Meloni’s trajectory owes much to that history. Beginning as an activist of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement in the Roman working-class district of Garbatella in the early 1990s, Meloni rose to prominence in a political milieu that didn’t deny its heritage.

She stated in an interview with French TV in 1996 that Mussolini was a “good politician” and “all that he did, he did for Italy”.

While Meloni now says Italy has consigned fascism to history, vestiges of her party’s political roots remain. For example, the flame in the party’s symbol is taken from the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, and there have been recent instances of its politicians and supporters performing fascist salutes.

Meloni and her party’s success can be traced back to Berlusconi’s entry into politics in 1994. His centre-right Forza Italia movement legitimised two smaller radical right parties (the northern regionalist League and the National Alliance) by bringing them into a coalition that easily won that year’s general election.

The coalition that will soon take power almost 30 years later contains the same three ingredients, but their internal balances have now drastically changed.

While some commentators focus on the continuity the new government will represent, there’s a historic change here. The pendulum on the right has shifted from Berlusconi’s centre-right populist governments with a far-right edge in the 1990s and 2000s, to Meloni’s far-right populist government with a centre-right edge in 2022.

What do these results mean for Italian politics?

Within the overall success of the right, there are winners and losers. Meloni is obviously the former, and Salvini is the latter.

Salvini is the politician who, having revitalised his party between 2013 and 2019, has now overseen a huge fall in its support from over 35% in the polls in July 2019 to under 10% today. Only the lack of an obvious successor may save Salvini from losing his party’s leadership.

For the main party on the Left, the Democratic Party, it’s yet another bad day. Having dropped to under 20% in the 2018 general election, they look unlikely to do much better than that this time. Their failure to find a campaign narrative beyond “stop the far right” and to create a broader coalition underlined the strategic ineptitude that has long undermined the Italian left.

Another “first” of this election is the turnout, which has slipped below two-thirds for the first time in Italian post-war history, declining from 73% in 2018 to 64% in 2022. This speaks to the image of a country in which large swathes of the population, especially in the South, are disillusioned with decades of politicians who have promised the earth and delivered little.

In economic and foreign policy terms, Italy may not change much in the short-term. Meloni will be keen to show Italian and international elites that she’s a responsible leader. Powerful domestic interest groups, such as the employers’ federation “Confindustria”, must be kept on side. As must the European Union which supports Italy through its post-COVID recovery plan.

But much could change for the far-right’s “enemies of the people”: ethnic, religious and sexual minorities; immigrants; and those judges, intellectuals, and journalists who dare to criticise the new regime.

Things will also change for those far-right Italians who, as Meloni recently put it, have had to “keep their head down for so many years and not say what they believed”. So, while the Brothers of Italy’s conservation of the post-fascist flame may be more smoke than fire for some groups, for others it will be incendiary.

Sofia Ammassari, PhD researcher, Griffith University and Duncan McDonnell, Professor of Politics, Griffith University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 12th 2023, 8:40 PM

    Contributors should remember that it is a money diary and not an actual minute by minute account of your day. For instance no need for things like I took the dog for a walk, I milked the cows, I went to the gym etc etc. They are long and boring enough with no need to pad it out.

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    Mute Emer Daly
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    Nov 12th 2023, 8:57 PM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: I like hearing about people’s day to day though aswell as what they spend on.

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 12th 2023, 9:23 PM

    @Emer Daly: but it’s a daily money diary , not a daily blog! We have enough to worry about or gloat over in our own daily lives. Also how many are actually factual?

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    Mute Jason Memail
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    Nov 12th 2023, 9:56 PM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: “everything I don’t like is fake”

    39
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    Mute Emer Daly
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    Nov 12th 2023, 10:30 PM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: I know but it’d be very short if it was only about money spent. I dunno but I look forward to these diaries.

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    Mute Maniac 2000
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    Nov 12th 2023, 11:13 PM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: the journal want information on what you do during the day. Makes it interesting and relatable

    26
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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2023, 12:11 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: Boring!

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    Mute Ryan O'Rourke'Glynn
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    Nov 13th 2023, 12:54 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: don’t read them then?

    26
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    Mute offside again
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    Nov 12th 2023, 8:28 PM

    I spend as little as possible. I’m not mean, it’s just the way it was back when I was young. So it wouldn’t be an interesting diary ..
    There wasn’t such a variety of stuff to spend money on either.

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    Mute Ron Burgundy
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    Nov 13th 2023, 12:45 AM

    @offside again: there’s a lad on boards.ie that was due a free bottle of honey, cheap sh.te less that €2 and he drove to six different Lidls until he found one that had it in stock. Guy is all over freebies on every bargain alert thread, like a cheap suit. He got laughed out of it over there but I’d love to see his money diary here for the cringe factor laugh.

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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2023, 1:59 AM

    @Ron Burgundy: there’s a big overlap of the r@tards from boards and the mong0s on the journal

    22
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    Mute Antóin Ó Cumamothóin
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    Nov 12th 2023, 9:43 PM

    I was hoping to save up a few grand by next spring, but it’s looking uncertain now that my usual clientele have outsourced most escorting jobs to the Ukrainians.

    37
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    Mute ubeenfamed
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    Nov 12th 2023, 8:22 PM

    Comment test . Comment test

    32
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    Mute
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    Nov 12th 2023, 10:15 PM

    @ubeenfamed: One.. Two… One.. Two… I think we’re good Jim.

    40
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    Mute Tommy Haze
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    Nov 12th 2023, 11:18 PM

    Make a budget at the start of the year then stick as close to it as you can.
    And remember..
    Every copper a prisoner.

    20
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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2023, 12:10 AM

    @Tommy Haze: Mind the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves, Tommy lad!

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    Mute S Badger
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    Nov 13th 2023, 8:04 AM

    I hope to go away this “spending season”. Don’t care where though, but wish to get away from this force fed spending atmosphere. I can barely keep the lights on, yet I work hard, full time. Call me a grinch, I can’t stand this time of year.

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    Mute
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    Nov 12th 2023, 10:27 PM

    There does be some right miserable feckers on this money diary thing wouldn’t spent a penny never see them buying drink or smokes or a big loan of scratch cards

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Nov 13th 2023, 9:19 AM

    Ha ha but only someone who is tight with money would keep a money diary in the first place.
    Do you think someone who throws money around on drink, smokes and scratch cards would actually have the discipline to keep one?

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Nov 13th 2023, 10:59 AM

    I would honestly be too scared to do this.. I have no idea how much I spend a week and I don’t want to know either.

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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2023, 8:03 PM

    I’m buying nothing. There you go. You’re welcome

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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2023, 8:06 PM

    Is Jesus Birthday not spending season. Ssshh don’t mention religion lads

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