Over the years, Italy has amply demonstrated its ability to throw the worst political excesses. Just look at the sequence of the last few days, brought to us courtesy of the Italian far-right and its leader, Giorgia Meloni.
Episode 1: Meloni, who is in the pole position to become the new prime minister after the elections on 25 September, posts a video of a rape on her social networks.
The reason? The attacker is an asylum seeker. The aim? To highlight the “security” part of her programme. Meloni’s ally Matteo Salvini also published a screenshot of the video.
To put it another way, the woman who could lead the government of one of the founding countries of the European Union and one of the world’s largest democracies deems it useful to broadcast the video of rape for electoral purposes.
Without getting into the debate about immigration policy, the broadcasting of this video by the leader of the currently most important Italian party is shameful.
Was there no more dignified and respectful way to convey the same message?
Among the reactions, left-wing frontman Enrico Letta called the publication “indecent”. Carlo Calenda, MEP and leader of the liberal Azione party, expressed concern about an attitude “unworthy of a civilised country”.
Calenda, again: “We both have daughters. Imagine if, in addition to the violence, they were exposed on all social networks. Please take down this video.”
Accused of violating the victim’s dignity, Meloni retorted that she had made sure that the video was blurred and that the victim was not recognisable.
In the end, Twitter took down Meloni’s post for violating its rules – but not Salvini’s.
Episode 2: One of Meloni’s most famous phrases has become: “I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a Christian”, said with vigour during a meeting – the video has gone viral. With the constant reference to her “patriotism”, Meloni appears to deliberately echo Fascist rhetoric: one of the mottos of the Italian Fascist party was “Dio, Patria, Famiglia” (God, Homeland, Family).
Episode 3: After explaining on French television in 1996 that “Mussolini was a good politician […] everything he did, he did for Italy”, Meloni now clarifies her party’s line by saying that fascism was over and that her party, Fratelli d’Italia, have nothing to do with it. Duly noted.
However, the recently published final lists of right-wing candidates still raised eyebrows. Two examples, among many others:
Galeazzo Bignami, whose greatest feat is to have dressed as a Nazi back in 2006, will be a candidate for Meloni’s party. In his youth, Bignami was one of the local heads of Azione Giovani, the youth movement of the hard-right, post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale party, where Meloni herself began her career.
He was also an energic activist in the neo-fascist and post-fascist groupings that preceded Azione Giovani, such as the Fronte universitario d’azione nazionale and the Fronte della gioventù. All in all, a chequered CV.
As another reminder, in the 2019 European elections, Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, a nephew of the Italian dictator’s son, was a candidate on Meloni’s list.
The slate of Salvini’s Lega will feature former state secretary Claudio Durigon. His claim to fame is a proposal to rename a park called “Falcone and Borsellino”, the two magistrates killed by the Mafia in 1992, to “Arnaldo Mussolini”, the Duce’s brother.
While Meloni might not be a fascist – even in the opinion of some politicians and experts, including some on the left – making the nostalgic electorate her core target is problematic. To awaken the instincts of Europe’s darkest periods is a mistake, especially if you’re about to run a country.
If the Italian right is truly done with fascism, it must urgently prove it by abandoning its rhetoric, symbols and references. Otherwise, one cannot help feeling that, perhaps, Italy deserves better.
The Roundup
The United States on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave Ukraine, saying it believed Russia was preparing to target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days as the war reaches the six-month mark.
European Union members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which all share a border with Russia, may stop Russian tourists from entering their countries if the EU does not enact a union-wide ban, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s leading internet firm Yandex on Tuesday said it had agreed to sell its news aggregator and yandex.ru homepage to rival VK in a move likely to further limit Russians’ access to independent media.
Russian and Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea terminal face at least one month’s disruption each once repairs begin on two of its three single mooring points (SPMs), CPC confirmed on Tuesday.
Russian politicians bade farewell at a service on Tuesday to Darya Dugina, the daughter of one of Russia’s most prominent ultra-nationalist ideologues, hailing her as a martyr whose death must inspire Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
In other news, German women tend to benefit less than men from the support programmes of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Juliane Vees, the first vice-president of the German Association of Women in Agriculture, told EURACTIV Germany in an interview.
Look out for…
- Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica attends a formal reception ahead of the annual Conference of Ambassadors, General Consuls and Military Attachés of the Republic of Croatia.
- High Representative Josep Borrell in Santander, Spain, directs course ‘Quo Vadis Europa’ at Menéndez Pelayo International University.
Views are the author’s.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
