The far right is set to rule Italy, having sworn in as the first female prime minister on Saturday. Giorgia Meloni grew up in the southern neighborhood of Rome that has traditionally been a working-class left-bastion and is the first extreme-right prime minister of Italy since Mussolini.
As the snap election results are confirmed, Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president held talks with leaders to decide who ultimately can bring stability back to Italy. Giorgia Meloni came out as the clear front-runner and had the right to the first refusal.
Giorgia Meloni is the very anti-thesis of the area where she grew up, a place historically red. People, especially the elderly, are apprehensive about the return of the far right. People here are intensely anti-fascist and if Meloni makes it, they fear it could be an ugly period in the history of Italy.
Giorgia Meloni Vehemently Rejects Far-Right Label
Giorgio Meloni has stressed that the far-right fascist ideology has been consigned to history though Italy has not been able to achieve the success of Germany in purging the evil of Nazism and has allowed fascist entities to regroup. The Brothers of Italy was formed in 2012. is one such party that has its roots in the MSI, the Italian Social Movement which is rooted in Mussolini’s fascist ideology.
The party even inherited the tricolor flame, the logo adopted by post-war extreme right parties, and symbolizes the flame burning on the tomb of Mussolini.
And this is a symbol that Giorgia Meloni cannot escape as it is her political identity. While her supporters say that her party isn’t fascist, the wings of the party have strong links to movements rooted in neo-fascism. And she has tried to stay somewhere in between.
Giorgia Meloni’s youth was rooted in hard-right politics and she joined the neo-fascist MSI’s youth wing when she was 15. Part of her political journey is rooted in her animosity for her father, Francesco, who was left-wing and moved out of the family when she was one year old.
