Three months ago, Europe watched nervously as Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made her inauguration speech in the Italian Parliament. So, Meloni wanted to send reassuring messages to the European Union and the US about his unconditional support for Ukraine, but also for his electorate, without skimping on identity ideology when talking about immigration or criticizing the internal functioning of the community bloc.
One hundred days later, the most right-wing government in Italy’s democratic history continues to top the polls and, though it has stumbled on a few occasions, has so far acted prudently. Meloni has opted to soften his image and carry out a pragmatic policy based on giving continuity to Mario Draghi’s previous decisions, especially on sensitive international and economic issues.
“Everyone in the electoral campaign warned about the return of fascism or Italexit. The truth is that nothing has happened, which is already a lot. The continuity is strong. We have a government that has dedicated itself to managing emergencies –especially the increase in energy prices– and that in the most delicate matters has moved cautiously within the spaces that Italy has, which are limited”, explains Giovanni Orsina, professor of Political Sciences from the Luiss Guido Carli University of Rome.
In the Ukrainian dossier, Rome has not changed course and has continued to guarantee support for Kyiv and the shipment of weapons. In Europe, the premier has avoided direct confrontation and has dedicated herself to strengthening ties with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, after the German suggested that the EU has “tools” in case things turn ugly , citing Hungary and Poland. Her first international visit was precisely to Brussels to reinforce the message that Italy will fulfill her obligations. And, in financial matters, she managed to approve budgets in record time that, with a few exceptions, followed the path marked out by her predecessor. The far-right that the German magazine Stern had baptized as “the most dangerous woman in Europe” has been integrated into the system.
The most critical moment of Meloni’s first hundred days was the initial clash with Macron after France was forced to open its ports to the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship in the face of Italian rebuffs. The spirits were already heated after some interventions by French ministers during the electoral campaign that were interpreted as threats of interference by the Italian extreme right. But apparently, according to sources from the Italian Executive, everything was caused by a misunderstanding. His Cabinet understood that Paris had accepted the landing and tweeted to thank him, something that the French president had not done and felt that he was being manipulated. A few days ago, before the Spanish-French summit held in Barcelona, ??Meloni called Macron to try to make peace.
In the international arena there have been no more setbacks. Meloni returned from the G-20 in Bali with her desired photograph together with Joe Biden, and a few days ago she traveled to Algeria, the current largest gas supplier for Italy, to continue with the contacts fostered by Draghi with the intention of becoming independent from hydrocarbons. from Moscow. Yesterday he was in Libya to sign another gas agreement. “Meloni has shown that we want to be fully in the EU and that we are reliable NATO partners. In addition, she has the advantage that she was elected by the people, because, although Draghi had great international prestige, he was a technician, ”defends Lucio Malan, president of the Italian Brothers group in the Senate.
On the immigration issue, which was expected to be one of the hottest topics, Meloni has had to take a step back from the “naval blockade” that he proposed in his campaign. His first migratory crisis was notorious, when he began to apply selective landings by allowing only migrants considered vulnerable to set foot on land. But given the obvious impossibility of achieving it – there was even an outbreak of scabies on board one of the ships – it has chosen to allow the landings, but complicating the work of the NGOs by assigning them ports far from the rescue zone, alluding to saturation. of the migrant centers in Sicily. This Saturday, the Geo Barents, operated by Doctors Without Borders, docked in the port of La Spezia, in the northwest of the country, after more than a hundred hours of navigation.
It is not the only thing in which Meloni has had to recoil. He had to reformulate a harsh decree against rave parties, described at first as a libertarian and that even made the Minister of Justice uncomfortable. He also gave in to pressure from the European Commission and renounced granting merchants the right to refuse card payments under 60 euros. “At first they wanted to speed up, but this is a trade that needs to be learned, and little by little they are learning it,” says Orsina. This week he has faced his first protest in the streets after the gas station union organizations announced a 48-hour strike due to the decision of the prime minister not to extend the excise tax cut on fuel that Draghi had approved. The current Executive opted for another path, that of forcing distributors throughout the country to display, next to the poster with the prices of gasoline and diesel, another sign with the amount of the national average. But the strike quickly fizzled out, and the unions called off the second day.
Even so, Brothers of Italy continues on its honeymoon in the polls, growing to 30% of popular support compared to 26% of the votes it achieved in September, a huge distance from the League and Forza Italia, its partners. in the government majority. The Democratic Party, focused on the process to elect its new leader after the setback of Enrico Letta, is still out of the game. The result anticipated strong tensions with Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, but for the moment they have avoided them. Il Cavaliere, 86, has only raised his voice to protest because he believes that he deserved a greater role in the Executive. “If someone thinks that Berlusconi would be silent just because he is not the first party, he does not know Berlusconi,” warns Malan. Now the big question is whether this unity will be maintained when it is time to address more divisive issues, such as the project to give more autonomy to the regions that the League is promoting. Brothers of Italy, centralist formation, wants to step on the brake.
