The atmosphere during Giorgia Meloni’s rally in Cagliari to launch her campaign for the next Italian general election in Cagliari on September 2, 2022 in Cagliari, Italy. Italians go to the polls for the general election on September 25, 2022.
Emanuele Perrone | Getty Images News | beautiful pictures
Italy’s voters go to the polls on Sunday in a snap general election that is likely to see a government led by a far-right party come to power, marking a major political shift for with a country dealing with ongoing economic and political instability.
Polls before 9 September (when the shutdown begins) show the right-wing coalition easily winning a majority of seats in the lower house and upper house were reduced.
The coalition is led by the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) of Giorgia Meloni, and includes three other far-right parties: Lega, under Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and a minor coalition partner than, Noi Moderati.
Italy’s Brotherhood Party stood out from the crowd and was expected to win the majority of votes for a single party. It got almost 25% of the vote, According to poll aggregator Politiche 2022far behind the nearest right-wing ally is Lega, who is expected to receive around 12% of the vote.
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party holds a giant Italian national flag during a political rally on February 24, 2018 in Milan, Italy.
Emanuele Cremaschi | beautiful pictures
On the centre-left, the Democratic Party led by former Prime Minister Enrico Letta is seen gaining around 21% and its coalition partners (Green and Left Alliance, More European and Citizen Pledge) are all given expected to hit a very low single digit stock level. of votes.
The snap election came after Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned in July, after he failed to agree on a bad political coalition behind his economic policies.
‘Who are the brothers of Italy?’
A Fratelli d’Italia election victory could see the party’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, become Italy’s first female prime minister. She will also be the first far-right leader since Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy a hundred years ago.
Carlo Ciccioli, president of Fratelli d’Italia in the Le Marche region of eastern Italy, told CNBC that the party’s immense popularity has “spread to the rest of Italy” and that the party is ready to take over.
“At this point we are likely to be the biggest party in the country – this can only be confirmed by Sunday’s vote, not any poll. Why do I think Will Fratelli d’Italia succeed? Because our leadership is one of substance. Giorgia Meloni is prepared both culturally and politically,” he told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche.
The Fratelli d’Italia party was founded in 2012, but has its roots in the 20th-century Italian neo-fascist movement, which emerged after the death of fascist leader Mussolini in 1945.
After various iterations, a group including Giorgia Meloni split from Berlusconi’s Liberals (or PdL) party to launch Fratelli d’Italia. Its name refers to the first words of the Italian national anthem.
The party has grown in popularity since then and has now surpassed the populist Lega party, which has resonated with sections of the public concerned about immigration (Italy is the destination of many migrant boats crossing Europe). China), its relationship with the EU and the economy.
Analysts say another reason for the party’s popularity is Draghi’s recent decision not to join the broad coalition. This makes Meloni “an outsider in the political system and better known to the media as an employee,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-chairman of the risk consultancy firm Teneo in a recent note. the only antagonist”.
Origin and policy
In policy terms, Fratelli d’Italia is often described as “neo-fascist” or “post-fascist”, its policies echoing the nationalist, nationalist, and anti-immigration stances of the time. Fascist Italy. For her part, however, Meloni claimed to have eliminated the party of fascism, saying in the summer that Italy’s right wing had been “transferring fascism to history for decades now.”
However, its policies are socially conservative to say the least, with the party opposing same-sex marriage and promoting traditional “family values”, with Meloni saying in 2019 that her mission is to protect “God, homeland and family.”
When it comes to Europe, Fratelli d’Italia reversed its opposition to the euro, but supported EU reforms to make it less bureaucratic and less influential on domestic policy. Its plan is encapsulated in one of its taglines: “A Europe doing less, but doing better.”
On the economic level, it delayed the center-right coalition’s position that the next government should cut sales taxes on certain items to ease the crisis cost of living, and said Italy should renegotiate its Covid recovery fund with the EU.
Fratelli d’Italia has been pro-NATO and pro-Ukrainian and has supported sanctions against Russia, unlike Lega who has always been conflicted about those measures.
However, the party has also been friendly with one of the EU’s main opponents, President Viktor Orban of Hungary, backing the powerful leader after a European Parliament resolution decided Hungary was no longer considered a political party. a democracy.
Center-left politicians fear relations with the rest of Europe will change under a government led by Meloni. Enrico Letta, the head of the Democratic Party, told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that Italy has two choices when it comes to Europe – stay in the top group of economies and governance, or be “relegated”.
“[The] the first choice is to keep our place in the ‘first division.’ The first division means Brussels and Germany, France, Spain, the great countries in Europe, the founders, like us. {The second option is to be relegated to the second division with Poland and Hungary, deciding to stay with them against Brussels, against Berlin, against Paris and Madrid,’ he said at the Ambrosetti economic forum in early September .
“I think it would be a disaster for Italy to choose the second division,” he said.
Meloni has been described by some as a political chameleon, with analysts noting changes in her political views over time.
“There is … a question of whether Meloni will lead the government: who praises Hungary’s Viktor Orban or supports Mario Draghi’s anti-Russian stance?” Teneo’s Wolfango Piccoli said in a note earlier this month. 9.
“The sovereignist calling for Italy to pull out of the euro or the leader reassuring that during the election campaign he advocated a more conventional path toward Europe? .. or the conservative politician responsible? than, who talked about a European solution to this problem?” he said.
This being Italy (a country notorious for having had 69 governments since the Second World War), some instability and chaos are expected after the vote, especially because of a possible split. between FdI, Lega and Forza Italia. forming a right-wing coalition.
“Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi will be difficult partners to ally, desperate to regain vision after (potentially) defeat on vote day by highlighting policy differences, including political issues. Topics such as financial discipline, pensions and sanctions against Russia, policy differences and individual rivalry will occur, Piccoli added.
