The Brothers of Italy is not a fascist movement, as the far-right Italian party’s charismatic leader Giorgia Meloni has repeatedly insisted. But they are not not fascist either. Like European neo-fascists elsewhere, the Brothers revile immigration and grandstand over a cloistered, narrow vision of national identity. And like neo-fascists elsewhere, the party draws its origins from a distinctly fascist past — in this instance, from the Italian Social Movement, which was founded out of the ashes of World War II defeat in 1946 by supporters of executed dictator Benito Mussolini.
Meloni counts some of Mussolini’s descendants as her direct allies and still uses the same emblem once adopted by the inheritors of his politics. A few years ago, such connections would have been merely part of the atmospherics of the political fringe, where the Brothers of Italy languished. But Meloni and her party are now polling ahead of all other rivals in Italian politics. When voters elect a new government on Sept. 25 — a consequence of last week’s dramatic collapse of the coalition led by technocratic Prime Minister Mario Draghi — they may confirm Meloni as the country’s first female prime minister.
This state of affairs is largely due to the dysfunction of the unwieldy coalition government that has held sway in Rome since 2018. Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank and a deeply respected political independent who stands somewhat athwart Italy’s polarized scene, was invited to office 18 months ago amid various squabbles and crises. He presided over what was widely viewed as a competent, stabilizing administration, but chose to quit last week after a number of coalition members — including the far-right League led by former interior minister Matteo Salvini, the populist Five Star Movement, and Forza Italia led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — withdrew their support.
This is, of course, par for the course in Italian politics.
“If Draghi’s resignation was abrupt and undesirable, it was nonetheless entirely consistent with political practice in Italy’s post-1945 democratic era,” noted Tony Barber in the Financial Times. “His national unity administration lasted 17 months, slightly longer than the average term for the 69 governments since the Second World War.”
See how the logos of the parties differ?
These parties are obviously not at all related to each other.
So please stop trying to find a connection that simply isn’t there!
Another piece of journalism from across the ocean (I think we’ll see a lot of them in the forthcoming weeks) about Giorgia Meloni and her party.
Especially interesting are the last lines from the second part, the less obvious and the most in depth of the whole article.
Right wing is not Fascism atleast for adults, reddit kids have different mentality.
I don’t support either Meloni nor Salvini but I think the word “fascist” is being used a bit too loosely.
If Meloni and Salvini are “post-fascists”, I’d say the term fell in weight quite a lot since the ’30s Fascism with the capital F.
Three decades of economic stagnation and mass migratory waves might cause that yes.
Train schedules will never be the same again.
Once again Italian voters will have to choose for the least terrible party and hopefully we will avoid a far right win
These are probably the first “fascist” people to ever walk the earth that want less government, less taxes and less public owned stuff.
How does these two make sense?
Does this mean that they are going to enact extremely strict mail laws? Like you misspell the address and you go to jail.
We are fucked
I vote center-left and even I wouldn’t call Giorgia Meloni & co. “fascists”. They’re right-wing. And there’s an abyss between that and the far-right. But it’s the Washington Post, I know how they like throwing around heavy words without knowing their true meaning…
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The Brothers of Italy is not a fascist movement, as the far-right Italian party’s charismatic leader Giorgia Meloni has repeatedly insisted. But they are not not fascist either. Like European neo-fascists elsewhere, the Brothers revile immigration and grandstand over a cloistered, narrow vision of national identity. And like neo-fascists elsewhere, the party draws its origins from a distinctly fascist past — in this instance, from the Italian Social Movement, which was founded out of the ashes of World War II defeat in 1946 by supporters of executed dictator Benito Mussolini.
Meloni counts some of Mussolini’s descendants as her direct allies and still uses the same emblem once adopted by the inheritors of his politics. A few years ago, such connections would have been merely part of the atmospherics of the political fringe, where the Brothers of Italy languished. But Meloni and her party are now polling ahead of all other rivals in Italian politics. When voters elect a new government on Sept. 25 — a consequence of last week’s dramatic collapse of the coalition led by technocratic Prime Minister Mario Draghi — they may confirm Meloni as the country’s first female prime minister.
This state of affairs is largely due to the dysfunction of the unwieldy coalition government that has held sway in Rome since 2018. Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank and a deeply respected political independent who stands somewhat athwart Italy’s polarized scene, was invited to office 18 months ago amid various squabbles and crises. He presided over what was widely viewed as a competent, stabilizing administration, but chose to quit last week after a number of coalition members — including the far-right League led by former interior minister Matteo Salvini, the populist Five Star Movement, and Forza Italia led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — withdrew their support.
This is, of course, par for the course in Italian politics.
“If Draghi’s resignation was abrupt and undesirable, it was nonetheless entirely consistent with political practice in Italy’s post-1945 democratic era,” noted Tony Barber in the Financial Times. “His national unity administration lasted 17 months, slightly longer than the average term for the 69 governments since the Second World War.”
[Italian Social Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Social_Movement)
[National Alluiance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Alliance_%28Italy%29)
[Brothers of italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_of_Italy)
See how the logos of the parties differ?
These parties are obviously not at all related to each other.
So please stop trying to find a connection that simply isn’t there!
Another piece of journalism from across the ocean (I think we’ll see a lot of them in the forthcoming weeks) about Giorgia Meloni and her party.
Especially interesting are the last lines from the second part, the less obvious and the most in depth of the whole article.
Right wing is not Fascism atleast for adults, reddit kids have different mentality.
I don’t support either Meloni nor Salvini but I think the word “fascist” is being used a bit too loosely.
If Meloni and Salvini are “post-fascists”, I’d say the term fell in weight quite a lot since the ’30s Fascism with the capital F.
Three decades of economic stagnation and mass migratory waves might cause that yes.
Train schedules will never be the same again.
Once again Italian voters will have to choose for the least terrible party and hopefully we will avoid a far right win
These are probably the first “fascist” people to ever walk the earth that want less government, less taxes and less public owned stuff.
How does these two make sense?
Does this mean that they are going to enact extremely strict mail laws? Like you misspell the address and you go to jail.
We are fucked
I vote center-left and even I wouldn’t call Giorgia Meloni & co. “fascists”. They’re right-wing. And there’s an abyss between that and the far-right. But it’s the Washington Post, I know how they like throwing around heavy words without knowing their true meaning…