(Headline USA) Italy’s globalist European Union partners are breaking into a panicked flopsweat following the country’s election of a true conservative, with clichéd cries of fascism and comparisons to former dictator Benito Mussolini becoming the default attack.
They called for vigilance after Italy, one of the bloc’s founding members, swung to the political right, which raised troubling questions about whether Rome will maintain its commitments to EU principles, laws and ambitions.
Giorgia Meloni: "Thanks Italy!" History is written. Italy belongs to the Italians, not to Ursula von der Leyen! pic.twitter.com/ebDdL65m2g
— RadioGenova (@RadioGenova) September 26, 2022
Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy Party topped the vote count in Sunday’s parliamentary election, immediately triggering the radical leftist leaders in neighboring countries like France.
“In Europe, we uphold some values and obviously we will ensure, and the president of the commission will ensure, that these values—on human rights, the respect of other people, especially the respect of the right to abortion—will be respected by all (member states),” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told BFM TV.
Such statements among the longtime EU partners are highly unusual and follow European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s pre-election threat that Europe “has the tools” to deal with any country—and that means Italy too—if things go “in a difficult direction.”
It comes as the EU, which has been closely aligned with the interest of billionaire oligarchs like the World Economic Forum that have pushed a one-world government by way of a “Great Reset”—continues to wage a bloody proxy war against Russia at the Ukrainian border.
Despite concerns over Russia’s possible use of nuclear weapons, the globalist front has refused to considered a brokered armistice, instead signaling desire for a putsch to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After the EU parliament recently attacked Hungary for re-electing a conservative leader, Viktor Orban, claiming that it could no longer be considered a “full democracy,” Orban announced his intention to withdraw from the EU.
The 27-nation European Union is already beset by challenges, including rising inflation and energy costs, but continues to meddle in the political affairs of its member–nations as it pushes a broader social agenda.
Meloni has against LGBT groomer culture, Islamist violence and mass migration as well as Brussels’s bureaucrats.
Several of her speeches and policy statements have won praise in American conservative media for her fearless willingness to confront the cancerous spread of wokeness head-on.
🇮🇹 Giorgia Meloni
"Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death, no to the violence of Islam, yes to safer borders, no to mass immigration, yes to work for our people” pic.twitter.com/Xf1tDhh1gG— Merissa Hansen (@MerissaHansen17) September 26, 2022
The likelihood that a euroskeptic will head Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy, is a potential blow for a European project already struggling with nationalism.
It also comes just weeks after conservatives swept the Swedish elections, where Muslim immigration has led the country, once one of the safest, most prosperous in the world, to become overrun with crime and terrorism attacks.
“Sweden in the north, Italy in the south: Left-wing governments are so yesterday,” tweeted Beatrix von Storch, a leading member of the Alternative for Germany party.
Portugal’s populist Chega said Italy’s shift to the right heralds a “political reconfiguration” in Europe. After the election outcome in Sweden, the party said, it is “Italy’s turn to send a clear signal that the European continent is undergoing deep change.”
Dutch anti-open-borders lawmaker Geert Wilders tweeted an image of the Italian flag with the words: VIVA ITALIA and a heart emoji.
But of most immediate concern at EU headquarters in Brussels is probably whether Meloni will link with Hungary and Poland to target one of the key pieces of European legal architecture: that EU treaties and law must have primacy over national law.
Hungary and Poland have used Europe’s top court to challenge the EU’s legitimacy on issues including migration policy and judicial independence. Hungary, notably, is blocking sanctions against Russia, but is also a thorn in the EU’s side in many other areas ranging from tax policy to foreign policy statements.
With Italy on board, things could be far more complex for the EU, given the routine need for unanimous votes from the 27 member countries.
“One of the EU’s basic dilemmas—unity versus ambition—has become much more difficult following the Italian elections,” tweeted Janis Emmanouilidis at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think tank.
There has also been concern about whether Meloni’s likely coalition partner, right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini, will return to Italy’s interior ministry, from where he once led a crackdown on migrant arrivals from northern Africa and any charity groups that might try to help them.
Meloni herself has called for a naval blockade to prevent migrant boats from leaving African shores, and both she and Salvini want Europe to screen potential asylum-seekers in Africa.
But even without a shift in position in Italy, the EU is already deeply divided over asylum policy and focused on outsourcing its migration challenges to the countries people leave or transit to get to Europe.
Meloni also has suggested that she wants to renegotiate parts of the pandemic economic recovery package agreed with Brussels, which is worth close to $200 billion to Italy—a significant amount given its massive debt problem.
Political opponents at home have raised concerns about her ability to properly administer the funds, a perennial issue for Italy.
In Brussels, the EU commission declined to comment on the election result or the fact that many voters had chosen anti-European parties.
“We of course hope that we will have constructive cooperation with the new Italian authorities,” spokesman Eric Mamer said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
