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Far-right Italian leader Meloni rides popular wave in polls
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
ROME (AP) — With a message that blends Christianity, motherhood and patriotism, Giorgia Meloni is riding a wave of popularity that next month could see her become Italy’s first female prime minister and its first far-right leader since World War II.
Even though her Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, Meloni has sought to dispel concerns about its legacy, saying voters have grown tired of such discussions.
Still, there are nagging signs that such a legacy can’t be shaken off so easily: Her party’s symbol includes an image of a tricolored flame, borrowed from a neo-fascist party formed shortly after the end of the war.
If Brothers of Italy prevails at the polls on Sept. 25 and the 45-year-old Meloni becomes premier, it will come almost 100 years to the month after Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator, came to power in October 1922.
In 2019, Meloni proudly introduced Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, a great-grandson of the dictator, as one of her candidates for the European Parliament, although he eventually lost.
For most Italian voters, questions about anti-fascism and neo-fascism aren’t “a key driver of whom to vote for,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, head of the YouTrend polling company. ”They don’t see that as part of the present. They see that as part of the past.”
Still, Meloni is sensitive to international scrutiny about her possible premiership and prefers the term conservative instead of far right to describe her party.
She recently recorded video messages in English, French and Spanish that said the Italian right “has handed fascism over to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the ignominious anti-Jewish laws.”
That was a reference to the 1938 laws banning Italy’s small Jewish community from participating in business, education and other facets of everyday life. The laws paved the way for the deportation of many Italian Jews to Nazi death camps during the German occupation of Rome in the waning years of World War II.
Yet by keeping the tri-colored flame in her party’s logo, “she is symbolically playing on that heritage,” said David Art, a Tufts University political science professor who studies Europe’s far right. “But then she wants to say, ‘We’re not racist.’”
Unlike Germany, which worked to come to terms with its devastating Nazi legacy, the fascist period is little scrutinized in Italian schools and universities, says Gastone Malaguti. Now 96, he fought as a teenager against Mussolini’s forces. In his decades of visiting classrooms to talk about Italy’s anti-fascist Resistance, he found many students “ignorant” of that history.
Only five years ago, Brothers of Italy — its name is inspired by the opening words of the national anthem — was viewed as a fringe force, winning 4.4% of the vote. Now, opinion polls indicate it could come in first place in September and capture as much as 24% support, just ahead of the center-left Democrat Party led by former Premier Enrico Letta.
Under Italy’s complex, partially proportional electoral system, campaign coalitions are what propels party leaders into the premiership, not just votes. Right-wing politicians have done a far better job this year than the Democrats of forging wide-ranging electoral partnerships.
Far-right Italian leader blasted for posting rape video
By Crispian Balmer
Brothers of Italy party leader Giorgia Meloni arrives for a meeting at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo
ROME, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, leading the race to become Italy's next prime minister, was accused on Monday of shameful electioneering by her rivals after posting a video of a Ukrainian woman being raped by a migrant in an Italian city.
The 55-year-old woman was assaulted on a pavement in the city of Piacenza early Sunday by an asylum seeker from Guinea, local officials said. The incident was videoed by someone in a flat overlooking the street and the assailant was arrested.
Police confirmed the arrest and said the man was being detained as the investigation continued.
Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party heads the polls ahead of a Sept. 25 national election, tweeted the video, which had been posted on a newspaper website with the image blurred but the woman's cries clearly audible.
"One cannot remain silent in the face of this atrocious episode of sexual violence against a Ukrainian woman carried out in daytime in Piacenza by an asylum seeker," Meloni wrote.
"A hug to this woman. I will do everything I can to restore security to our cities."
The tweet drew a barrage of criticism online, as well as from Meloni's political opponents.
"It is indecent to use images of a rape. Even more indecent to do so for electoral purposes," Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), wrote on Twitter.
It is far more indecent to pretend it doesn't happen, or to pretend that migrants aren't largely responsible for a major spike in violent crimes across Europe.
Another centrist leader, Carlo Calenda, called Meloni's Tweet "immoral". Igiaba Scego, a prominent Italian writer of Somali heritage, accused Meloni of exploiting the rape victim.
"Offered up as clickbait voyeurism instead of being protected. This electoral campaign is horrendous," she wrote.
Meloni, who has called for a naval blockade of North Africa to prevent migrant boats from setting sail, said on Facebook her rivals had used the rape to attack her while ignoring the victim to avoid addressing what she called the immigration emergency.
Letta's post had said: "Respect for people and victims always comes first" and Calenda wrote "only the victims matter".
How about respect for the citizens of Italy who will become victims of such lawless people?
This is the first country that I am aware of where the people are standing up against the accepted narrative of the West against Russia. I don't think it will be the last as energy prices skyrocket in Europe. In spite of the mainstream media being totally controlled by Deep State, social media is beginning to make a dent in the acceptable narrative (read: lies) of NATO and the western oligarchs who produce weapons of war.
Tens of thousands protest against Czech government
PRAGUE (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters from the far right and far left joined forces to rally against the country’s pro-Western Czech government in the capital on Saturday.
Police estimated that the crowd at Prague’s central Wenceslas Square numbered around 70,000.
Some of the groups represented at the demonstration included the major anti-migrant populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party and the Communist Party.
The protesters demanded the resignation of the current coalition government led by conservative Prime Minister Petr Fiala, criticizing it for a number of issues, including its Western-oriented policies.
They condemned the government for its support of the sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine and accused it of not being able to tackle soaring energy prices. The demonstrators also criticized NATO, and the European Union and the 27-nation bloc’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reach climate neutrality. The country belongs to both organizations.
Fiala said everyone has a right to demonstrate, but said those protesting are expressing pro-Russia views “that are not in the interest of the Czech Republic and our citizens.”
The Czech Republic firmly supports Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s invasion and has donated arms, including heavy weapons, to the Ukrainian armed forces.
The government is planning to call an emergency meeting of EU countries next week to seek a united approach to the energy crisis. The Czech Republic currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
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