By: Jason Rosenzweig
You may have heard a lot about Giorgia Meloni, but many people don’t know who she is and what she stands for beyond a few buzzwords. The founder of the Brothers of Italy — a party that can be traced back to a successor to Mussolini after WW2 — she has taken Italy by storm and won the election along with her coalition. So who is she, and what does she believe in?
In 1992, Giorgia Meloni joined the Youth Front, the youth division of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a party created by followers of Mussolini in 1946 after his fall from power. From there, she continued to rise in the ranks of MSI and other parties which came after it, until she got to the point of founding her own party, the Brothers of Italy, in 2012.
Giorgia Meloni has incredibly controversial political positions. She is staunchly anti-gay marriage and holds the view that homophobia does not exist at all in Italy, and thus no laws need to be enacted to act against it. She also opposes abortion. However, with this issue, she is not going to work to outlaw it. Instead, she is going to allow doctors to object to an abortion and not carry out the procedure. However, she is willing to take drastic measures to “protect the family” as she sees it. She said she may amend the constitution of Italy so she can ban gay people from adopting babies, an incredibly severe measure.
On the hot topic in Europe of immigration, Meloni has some… interesting views, to say the least. This is strategic because strong views about immigration win elections. Meloni thinks that Italy must adopt a zero tolerance policy towards illegal immigration and that it must increase its average birth rate in order to reduce the need for migrant labor. She is opposed to non-Christian migrants coming to Italy and she is opposed to multiculturalism. She has also shown support for multiple conspiracy theories including the Great Replacement (a theory that white “pure” white people are being replaced by immigrants and Muslims in particular), and another theory that there is a planned mass migration of Africans to Europe in order to eliminate and replace Italians. Her belief in all of these policies, especially the two conspiracy theories she has shown support for, is entirely ridiculous.
It is often hard to realize when hearing buzz words like “fascist” and people talking about Mussolini just how bad Giorgia Meloni is for the future of a socially progressive Europe. Her beliefs are incredibly harmful not just to Italy but to the world and anyone who wants to immigrate to Italy. I fear that her beliefs may spread to other neighboring countries and we may see a neo-fascist and protectionist (rather than globalist) wave sweep over Europe. This may weaken the EU in a way that it cannot fully recover from, as people like Meloni dislike the EU and believe that it is inefficient and a waste of resources. The people of Europe must avoid electing people like Meloni and her Brothers of Italy in order to form a better Europe and a better world.
Sources:
Agenzia Vista Alexander Jakhnagiev. ""Gli Omosessuali in Italia? Non Sono Discriminati": Meloni E Salvini in Piazza Contro La Legge Sull'omofobia Minimizzano Le Aggressioni." Il Fatto Quotidiano, 16 July 2020, www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/07/16/gli-omosessuali-in-italia-non-sono-discriminati-meloni-e-salvini-in-piazza-contro-la-legge-sullomofobia-minimizzano-le-aggressioni/5870812/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
"The Anti-women Agenda of the Woman Set to Be Italy's Next PM." OpenDemocracy, www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/giorgia-meloni-far-right-brothers-of-italy-election-prime-minister-racism-gender/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Drogo, Giovanni. "Giorgia Meloni Contro Il Terribile Piano Kalergi." NextQuotidiano, 7 Oct. 2016, www.nextquotidiano.it/giorgia-meloni-contro-il-piano-kalergi/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
"Giorgia Meloni: "In Costituzione Il Divieto Di Adozione Per Le Coppie Omosessuali"." Gaypost.it, 3 Feb. 2018, www.gaypost.it/giorgia-meloni-costituzione-divieto-adozione-coppie-omosessuali. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Kington, Tom. "Giorgia Meloni is First West European Leader to Believe Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory." The Times & The Sunday Times, 27 Sept. 2022, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/giorgia-meloni-is-first-west-european-leader-to-believe-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-pddmf5vsf. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
"Quelli Che "servono" a Meloni (di Manginobrioches)." HuffPost Italia, 26 Aug. 2022, www.huffingtonpost.it/blog/2022/08/26/news/meloni-10092065/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Comments