Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party comes up on top with her 26% at the general elections. The European Union fears that another conservative government will disrupt unity.
Italy has decided: in an almost clear cut election, the ultraconservative far-right party of Giorgia Meloni won. With 26% of the votes, she is going to form a center-right coalition that will almost monopolize the political debate in Italy.
With yesterday’s elections, the center-right coalition got a whopping 44% of the votes, which is far from the 26% of the left coalition. To be clear, the entire left-wing coalition got as many votes as Giorgia Meloni’s party alone. Furthermore, because of Italy’s electoral law where a “seat bonus” is given to the majority coalition, the center-right block will get 348 out of 600 seats in Parliament, while the center-left only 121.
The remaining seats will be split between the centrist political forces, which will probably ally with the center-left in order to oppose Giorgia Meloni.
Giorgia Meloni is set to be the first female Prime Minister of Italy. Her result at the elections is the one holding the coalition together. The other two right-wing parties, respectively led by Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, didn’t even reach 10% of the popular vote. This means that Giorgia Meloni will lead the formation of the government, and will probably take the highest seat for herself.
Brussels fears a new conservative government in Europe
The news of Giorgia Meloni’s win put many European leaders on the edge of their seats. With the war in Ukraine that demands ever more cohesion, another conservative movement (especially within a major European player like Italy) could disrupt EU’s unity.
Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, tried to calm down such fears pointing at the several weapons Brussel could deploy if Italy doesn’t “comply”. She compared Italy with the likes of Hungary and Poland, probably forgetting that Germany relies on Italian manufacture more than she wants to admit.
It is true, however, that Italy currently holds the biggest chunk of the Recovery Fund programme. 190 billion euros are supposed to be wired to Italy in the next few years, and Giorgia Meloni knows that. That money will arrive only if Rome follows religiously all the guidelines imposed by Brussels.
What makes Brussels shiver is Meloni’s vocal opposition to some basic human rights, especially to women (in a rather ironic fashion for a first female PM) and LGBTQ members. However, she is also in favor of supporting Ukraine in her effort against Russia and wants to cut Italy’s current energetic ties with Moscow.
Overall, Giorgia Meloni’s government could turn out milder than expected, partly because she desperately needs EU funds and partly because of Italy’s innate political instability. Since 2011, Italy changed Prime Minister eight times and made the population even more disillusioned in the political debate. It’s Giorgia Meloni’s turn now to take on this unenviable task.
