Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right party in Italy, obtained a landslide victory at yesterday’s general elections. This, however, is just the results of years of political instability.
Yesterday, Sunday the 25th of September, Giorgia Meloni snatched an almost historical victory at the general elections. Thanks to her 26%, the center-right coalition formed by her party, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini’s will hold the absolute majority in the Italian Parliament.
She is the most conservative of the three, often vocally opposing women rights as well as LGBTQ ones, and putting into question Italy’s membership of the Eurozone. Understandably, many European leaders and foreign press are in panic, fearing more and more European disunity.
The Guardian, for example, has deemed Giorgia Meloni a threat for weeks now, writing several articles on the dangers of the far-right and the rise of conservative parties. In a recent editorial, they argued that right-winged parties in Italy have been “normalized”. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but to understand why we must look at Italy’s recent political past.
Italy is not a far-right country
The numbers speak loud and clear: Meloni got 26% of the votes and the overall right-winged coalition 44%. What this means is that 74% of the ballots did not go to Giorgia Meloni, and 56% didn’t go to the right at all. This alone would be a measure to see that Italy has not, in fact, normalized any right-winged party.
So why does the center-right coalition hold the majority in Parliament? Because of Italy’s electoral law, which gives a “seat bonus” to the majority coalition. Thanks to this, the center-right got 348 out of 600 seats in the Parliament (a sum of both Senate and Lower Chamber).
Furthermore, the ballots could have been much different if the main leftist force, the Democratic Party, had not isolated every possible alliance. If, for instance, they remained allied with the 5 Stars Party, the former major Italian force, they would have the numbers to contrast the right-winged majority. The current leftist coalition got 26% at the elections and the 5 Stars Party alone achieved 15%. In a coalition together they could have very well faced Giorgia Meloni, but the isolationist policy by the Democratic Party was their undoing.
But this was far from the only mistake made by the Left.
Why Giorgia Meloni was allowed to win
One might argue that the real reason Giorgia Meloni got 26% of the votes was because of the incredibly low affluence. In fact, it was the lowest in Italy’s history, sitting at a mere 64%. This means that the true winner of these elections were the non-voters, who simply decided to abandon the political debate. But why is that?
Despite The Guardian’s allegations that the leftist party put up a weak opposition, it should be noted that, in fact, the Democratic Party was part of the majority for almost 10 years. Since 2011, there was only one government which saw the leftists in opposition and it barely lasted one year.
The perception that the right parties in Italy are so powerful comes only from the fact that they were allowed to be. The Democratic Party did not put up any sort of fight when it came to the matters of immigration and civil rights, and they had all the chances to do so.
Finally, the Democratic Party presented an extremely weak electoral campaign, only trying to undermine Giorgia Meloni without actually proposing different measures.
In conclusion, there is no conservative rise in Italy. If Giorgia Meloni won the last elections is only a result of the natural mechanisms of Democracy. Perhaps this will be a wake-up call for the leftist party, which could find renewed force sitting at the opposition (this time for real).
