The Right-Wing victory in the Italian election of this September has generated worries that Italy could be returning to some form of Fascism. But, as it is normally the case, things are much more complex than what you can gather from a few newspaper articles. Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Right, has no possibility nor intention to return to the dark times of Mussolini’s “Fasci da Combattimento.” She faces an extremely difficult task and I argued in a previous post that she was given a chance to become prime minister with the specific purpose of acting as a scapegoat for the unavoidable troubles that Italy will face this winter. You can find a more detailed analysis in the post below, written by the Italian historian Franco Cardini. I tend to agree with most of the points he makes although, as usual, the future always surprises us and, recently, it has surprised us a lot!
EVERYTHING LOOKS BAD, BUT MAYBE IT’S WORSE…
They will say, as usual, that I have a weakness for Giorgia Meloni, but she does what she does because she cannot and will not do anything else. It’s her time: she is in the business of politics, she knows that her bus is passing, and it is unlikely for her to have such an opportunity again. It was a beautiful victory: not only, and not so much, for the response of the ballot box, however negatively conditioned by the very high number of non-voters that no politician worthy of the name can ignore or underestimate, but for having played all his opponents with a masterful move. She was the ugly duckling of Parliament, perpetually slapped with the sword of Damocles by the renewed accusations of fascism that she could strike her at any moment. But she managed to score a masterful blow, built little by little and day by day.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
