fret not, it's in english:)
i m writing this as italy is sleepwalking into refascism with ms meloni billed as next prime minister out of the snap elections on september 25. the crazy as nature of spaghetti politics has never been in greater display, still the peninsular mutation lab always holds negative surprises in store.
in a deadly season of drought, heat and fire, draghi was sent packing by the right in spite of the joint support of the corriere-repubblica family capitalist diarchy and early elections were called by catholic president mattarella. It soon became apparent the hungarian salami of meloni-berlusconi-salvini could win hands down and might even get a majority so large to change the faintly christian/socialdemocratic constitution.
The likelihood of a fascist prime minister a century after mussolini's march on rome became near certainty after centrist calenda (a bourgeois maverick of italian politics from the privileged roman neighborhood of parioli) reneged on his coalition pact with the the democratic party, after it had struck an alliance with the green-red alliance of europa verde and sinistra italiana (themselves hankering after seats rather than ecosocialist policy - their strategic inability underscored by the fact that neither greens nor reds thought they could score 3% alone..).
The electoral law (called rosatellum after an mp now with renzi, who should strike a deal with cocky and insincere calenda for a macronian list - although renzi is the smarter of the two) gives a premium to the strongest coalition (1/3 are first past the post, 2/3 are on proportional lists, with the chamber shrunk to 300 because of 5 star law) and the trimurti of the right at more than 40% is outperforming the centerleft (currently at 30%) while the declining 5 stars of former prime minister conte hovering around 10% and the centrist duo behind.
The democratic party has renounced from the start to ally itself with 5 stars with whom they have governed since 2019 because of their role in bringing down draghi (as the largest parliamentary formation they wanted to defend citizenship income and other signal laws of theirs, but draghi engineered a split in their ranks with di maio, former leader of the 5 star movement, doing a splinter formation but this proved insufficient to prop up the haughty central banker - elections should have normally taken place in march '23 anyway). letta (a former christian-democrat that looks the well-meaning bookish nerd he is) has been completely outmaneuvered by the nationalist right's blitzkrieg and since its coalition has already lost pieces, the PD looks set for a beresina at the polls that will lead to his resignation with bonaccini (the hearty and unrefined governor of the emilia-romagna region of parma, bologna, ravenna and rimini) already marked for succession.
draghi is looking like the second giolitti after wwi, who called in to stabilize the situation ended up opening the gates to fascism. as in '22 the stupidity and divisions of the left are doing a great favor to the fascists. But how fascist are the brothers of italy of sister giorgia? straight answer: a lot. As their current symbol reminds you, the party descends from movimento sociale of almirante, a nostalgic who looked back to the fake ideological fervor of collaborationist repubblica sociale di salò - the absolutely worst phase of italian fascism under nazi supervision, with black brigades shooting and torturing thousands of partisans (we hung him in loreto because 15 partisans were executed there and their bodies left to rot on this day in '44. Hear her talking at vox congress against gender rights and spouting the nationalist trinity of god, family, motherland (viz. her famous meme: "io sono giorgia, sono una donna, sono una madre, sono cristiana!"). But liberal commentators have already warmed to her. She claims she is a post-fascist who sits with the group of conservatives at the european parliament. however regularly local party bosses are embroiled in criminal investigations on charges of neonazism, mafia or both.
From a political standpoint what i called the refascism of giorgia meloni, is naziliberista (neonaziliberal if you want: italian corrupts inferior versions of political ideals - repubblicano becomes repubblichino in case of salò and liberale become liberista in case of friedman). Their political economy is straight out of hayek: no minimum wage (it still doesnt exist in italy, draghi failed to set it at 9 euros), abolition of citizenship income (actually a poverty subsidy which has defended two million and a half from destitution), flat tax fiscal reform, and guarantee of no wealth tax and repeal of property taxes that exist. meloni differs from salvini in two senses: she doesn't care for workers at all, and is atlanticist, not like salvini who s in cahoots with putin.
her model is bannon, not le pen. also on europe, meloni has been less strident and more cautious than salvini in antagonizing brussels, although the fascista and the leghista certainly share a fondness for hungary and poland and whoever retains clerical/patriarchal/nationalist sovereignty. The two of course both want to drastically curtail immigration and prevent ius soli (although they differ on the means - salvini wants to repatriate everybody, giorgia wants to send the navy to do a blockade).
The perspective of rifascismo rising again to power has already created a dark atmosphere in italy with a resurgence of racist crimes, like the brutal murder of Alika Ogorchkwu strangled in broad daylight in a shopping street while for 4 interminable minutes people were filming but nobody lifted a finger to save him in civitanova, marche. In my view, he is our George Floyd (and said so in a radio interview after i organized a sitin in his memory in milano). In another telling racist incident, Beauty, a Nigerian young woman working in a fucking stabilimento balneare by the beach (people who get concessions for peanuts and charge major bucks for access) was kicked and insulted by her employer who so responded to her request of wage arrears in soverato, calabria.
ciao, buon ferragosto,
Alex