The victory of the misnamed “Swedish Democrats” galvanizes their Italian cousins. Matteo Salvini has fun on Twitter: “Even in beautiful and democratic Sweden, the lefts are defeated, sent home“. Now “it’s our turn, on the 25th (September) we’re going to win!“
Reed nella bella e democratica #Svezia, sinister sconfitte ea casa! Domenica 25 tocca a noi, andiamo a vincere! https://t.co/4EiQNDDRIA
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) September 14, 2022
The boss of the League, an anti-immigration party, belongs to an alliance of the rights which brings together the small formation “Forza Italia” of Silvio Berlusconi (still there) and especially the “Fratelli d’Italia” a post-fascist party created in 2012 by a 45-year-old woman, Giorgia Meloni. Their trio literally flies over the polls. Unlike Sweden, the far right in Italy is not just an ally of the mainstream right, it is leading the dance. Giorgia Meloni has every chance, in ten days, of taking the lead in the third largest economy in the euro zone.
Giorgia Meloni wants to tackle immigration, to prevent what she describes as “ethnic replacement“. She also has the LGBT “lobby” in her sights. She wants to boost the birth rate, promote “the Judeo-Christian identity of Europe” (its motto is “God, fatherland, family”), lower taxes and relax some European rules. Somewhere between Donald Trump, Eric Zemmour and Viktor Orban.
With your support, we are ready to revive Italy! No Italian will be able to say that the neofascist Giorgia Meloni did not warn! Admirer of Mussolini, she is ready to take power in Italy, the founding country of the European Union …Italians, wake up! https://t.co/wAFd9YCC2D
— Pierre Pribetich (@pierrepribetich) September 10, 2022
Brothers of Italy is clearly an extreme right party; if we speak of post-fascist it is because he is the heir of the MSI (Italian Social Movement) founded in 1946 by supporters of Benito Mussolini. Frères d’Italie has also kept its logo, a green-white-red tricolor flame (the National Front in France had the same). Giorgia Meloni finds that Mussolini has “achieved many good things”.
Europe: the new surge of populism https://t.co/oiCRdQQu3Y
— Opinion (@lopinion_fr) September 13, 2022
But nothing helps. It does not even frighten economic circles, convinced that it will act in continuity.
Sweden and Italy show that the far right is becoming commonplace in Europe, that there is a porosity of values with the republican right. It is a global structural evolution. And even if its presence in a government remains exceptional (we have seen it in Austria twice in 20 years, in Italy with the League, in Finland), in recent years the conservatives have normalized it by adopting its programs in terms of immigration or security. By integrating its parties and its representatives into the political game. We can also cite the conservative right-wing nationalist governments in Poland and Hungary.
The feeling of downgrading and economic insecurity among Europeans, amplified by the energy crisis, could reinforce it even more at the ballot box: dhe other elections promise to be contested in the coming weeks and months, in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Finland and Denmark.