After the election victory of Giorgia Meloni and the Fratelli d’Italia in Italy, many international media are still puzzling over what exactly it means. The comments ranged from “wait and see” to an upheaval in Italy and Europe. The press review.
Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) have given the right-wing camp a clear victory in Italy. According to the projections, the FDI received around a quarter of all votes in the parliamentary elections on Sunday, making it the strongest force. The right-wing alliance of Melonis FDI, the right-wing national Lega and Forza Italia (FI) received a good 43 percent of the votes – which should be enough for a clear majority in both chambers of parliament.
Meloni could thus become the first woman to head an Italian government. “The Italians have sent out a clear message in favor of a right-wing government led by Fratelli d’Italia,” Meloni told journalists in Rome on Monday night. “We will rule for everyone,” she added.
Press review of Meloni’s election victory in Italy
German and international media commented on the outcome of the election in Italy as follows:
Germany
“FAZ.net”
“The glaringly bright spotlights are now directed at them (Meloni, ed.). Many previous governments have burned up in them after a short time. If they want to refute their doubters and opponents, they now have to get rid of the remaining program ballast of their radical past From now on, competence and prudence are required. As head of government, she will be judged less by her past life than by her actions. In the current environment, they will be difficult enough for her.”
“Mirror online”
“The shift to the right in Italy is less clear than expected. Meloni owes her victory perhaps less to her own strength than to the weakness of the left camp, where almost everyone fought against everyone.
That doesn’t change the result. A complicated electoral law gives her an absolute majority in parliament. Giorgia Meloni can now transform Italy and Europe as she sees fit.”
“Southgerman newspaper”
“But how smart would it be to put Italy alongside Orbán’s Hungary and challenge the system you’ve been building for so long?
The Italians would lose far more than they gained. It can no longer work without Europe. Italy cannot do without the 220 billion euros. The help of the European Central Bank will continue to be needed in the future. And generosity with the debts will also be necessary for a while. Meloni is also no longer talking about exiting the euro, as she often did in the past. She talks simply, likes to be coarse and at most semi-strong.”
“Welt.de”
“The success of Meloni’s party is basically not a political one, it is not the success of a political idea. It is based primarily on the fact that the Fratelli were the only ones of the perceptible parties to oppose, more precisely: that they consistently and stubbornly said no to everything what the three governments have done over the past four years.
Meloni’s success is non-political, even anti-political. This can also be seen from the fact that she was not able to stop the trend of abstention with her promises of salvation: Only almost two thirds of the voters went to the polls, ten percent less than four years ago.”
“time online”
“What exactly does Meloni mean when she says that she will always and everywhere represent the ‘national interest of Italy’ with determination? Will she copy the policies of her political friend Viktor Orbán?
There will be answers as soon as Meloni forms a government. Attention will have to be paid to the composition of her cabinet, to her first initiatives as prime minister. So wait.”
Norway
“Verden’s Walk”
“Giorgia Meloni will probably be Italy’s new prime minister. But as usual in Italy, the question arises: for how long? A record low voter turnout and a clear geographical imbalance between north and south give Meloni’s winning team weak legitimacy. Because she, Giorgia Meloni, has Coalition comrades Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi are two of the biggest losers.
So it will be difficult. Negotiations on chairs and positions are now awaiting the post-fascist, far-right Fratelli d’Italia party. Normally, parties have up to 25 days to form a governing majority. But like the 2018 election, when the Five Star Movement became the largest party, there are so many X-Factors floating around that negotiations can drag on.”
Poland
“Rzeczpospolita”
“The EU has never faced such a challenge. In the third most important country in the community, a coalition of nationalist, populist right-wingers is taking power. The refusal to integrate, which was previously essentially limited to Poland and Hungary, is now gaining a much stronger voice in the European Council This could call into question Brussels’ continued efforts to defend the rule of law in central Europe. Meloni, who has opposed EU membership and the eurozone in the past, now advocates the primacy of national law over European law would mean blowing up a pillar on which integration rests.
A test for Meloni will be her Russia policy. Ever since the Russian invasion began, the future prime minister has been unequivocally pro-Ukraine. She spoke out in favor of tightening sanctions against Russia and supplying arms to the Ukrainians. However, her coalition partners have long been pro-Putin. It remains to be seen to what extent Meloni will be able to enforce her will against Salvini and Berlusconi.”
Spain
“El País”
“Italy, one of the founding members of the EU, will almost certainly be governed by a party born in the wake of Mussolini’s fascism brazenly flaunting bellicose national populism.
Meloni’s election campaign has focused on defending the traditional family and excluding other models, announcing cuts in welfare for the most vulnerable, very restrictive anti-immigration policies and the rollback of social gains for women, particularly abortion rights. The left’s inability to forge alliances has doomed the country to the return of Berlusconi and Salvini to government under the command of the rising Meloni. Italy openly leans to the extreme right, but Europe must tighten controls against those seeking to destabilize the EU itself.”
Czech Republic
“Hospodarske noviny”
“Almost exactly 100 years ago, Italy experienced a fascist coup that brought Benito Mussolini to power. Now, for the first time since Mussolini’s fall, Italy will have a representative of the extreme right at the head of government. Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy is the clear winner of the elections of 2019 Sunday. “While she was inclined towards fascism in her youth, it would be unfair to accuse her of fascism today. Certainly there is no threat that Meloni wants to abolish democracy. Her coalition’s victory is problematic for a completely different reason: in Italy the same are coming Putting people back in power that nearly bankrupted the country once before, when Italy could really use competent government given its debt and years of stagnation.”
United States
“Wall Street Journal”
“Meloni was too reluctant to completely distance herself from her party’s (Fratelli d’Italia) fascist legacy. But it’s also not clear how much politics would change under her leadership. (…)
In the 2018 election, a right-wing coalition led by (Matteo) Salvini emerged victorious. But Salvini’s reputation was considered so damaging that complex maneuvers were carried out in Parliament to prevent him from becoming prime minister. (…) The frustrations that led to this outcome in 2018 have grown after two years of pandemic and an energy crisis caused by Russia.
Meloni was comparatively little known when she entered this election and her party has never been in power. She is on the way to winning, partly because she did not join the grand coalition government under then Prime Minister Mario Draghi. A Melonis victory will usher in a complex new phase in Italian politics and in Italy’s relations with the European Union. But that is the case in every Italian election these days. The point is that Italians may well get the conservative government they seemed to want four years ago. Now they’re going to find out if it works.”
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Source: Stern
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