Almost exactly 100 years after Benito Mussolini staged his “March on Rome” mass demonstration, during which his National Fascist Party seized power, Italy appears likely to hand control of its government to Giorgia Meloni.
Charismatic and driven, the 45-year-old Meloni, a parliamentarian, doesn’t hold a university degree, but as head of Fratelli d’Italia , a far-right-wing party she formed a decade ago, the single mother has campaigned on a platform based on her belief in the virtues of God, motherhood and patriotism, while decrying immigration and LGBTQ rights. Polls show her and Brothers of Italythat will determine Italy’s next prime minister.
While many conservatives cheer her ascent — and the idea of the first woman to rule Italy — her candidacy has simultaneously raised concerns among Italians about racism and the future of abortion in the country as well as Italy’s role in the European Union.and has toned down her attacks on the European Union, Meloni appeared at a June rally in support of Spain’s far-right Vox party and delivered remarks that renewed that criticism.adding that no middle ground was possible.
in New York, helped spur Meloni’s rise since 2018, when Brothers of Italy took a mere 4% of the vote in parliamentary elections — whereas current polls show the party in first place at 25%. Bannon spent much of 2018-19 in Europe attempting to form “the Movement,” an envisioned network of right-wing European populist parties. He not only