Giorgia Meloni’s election : new intentions for the EU?

Giorgia Meloni : a new face for Italy 

She was the favorite of opinion polls and the voters confirmed it into the ballot box Sunday the 25th of September 2022. Determined and ambitious, Giorgia Meloni, an Italian political woman, wanted one thing : to win. Member of the Chamber of Deputies in Italy, leader of Brother of Italy, a political party and active in the Italian Social Movement, Giorgia Meloni is on all the fronts. She describes herself as an Italian and above all, a christian woman. Her political and societal thoughts convinced Italian people. With her political party she stirs up the past, in particular the Mussolini era with fascist ideas. This result of legislative elections is a new start for Italy or a return to the past ? 

Far-Right party Brothers of Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni shows a placard reading in Italian “Thank you Italy” at her party’s electoral headquarters in Rome, early Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Italians voted in a national election that might yield the nation’s first government led by the far right since the end of World War II.

This victory concerns some countries. Indeed, Giorgia Meloni incarnates the far right and her future intentions can become the origin of international relationships’ destruction. 

Italy, a founding country of EU

Bordered by the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, this country with red, white and green colors played an important role in the construction of the EU. Italy is one of the six countries who’s at the origin of the European Communities. Even if he wasn’t the motor or the strongest link of this European construction, some assets of Italy during the cold war have been more than helpful.

But this Mediterranean country has also known complicated periods with some doubts about European policy. Especially, after the election of Silvio Berlusconi in 2008, when Italy had some disadvantages to stay in Europe. In particular three major elements : it was an unstable country so it meant that Italy was an unreliable partner on a European scale, the radical renewal of the political elites or the economic decline of the country.

Today, with Giorgia Meloni’s election, doubts are here. Between fears and questioning, decisions that this political woman will take still remain a hint of mystery. Will she turn everything upside down?

Keeping links with the EU  

During her campaign, G.Meloni led to believe that she wanted a future outside the Europe for her country. But for the moment, she affirmed that she does not envisage an “Italexit”. During her meetings, she explains that she doesn’t want Italy to leave the European Union but she wants “a confederal Europe and less regulatory”.

Even if for a part of Europe the Fratelli d’Italia victory is truly the shadow of a “Italexit”, Italians remain optimistic. For them, the far right is not the synonym of “anti-system”.

After the elections in Sweden and Hungary, now it’s Italy’s turn that shows a real rise of the far right in Europe. 

This new election can be the birth of an alliance between Italy and Hungary. It can become an ultra-conservative front. For G.Meloni “the Hungarian prime minister is a model of how to stand proudly on the European stage.” 
So, in the EU some things can change. Rome, Budapest and Warsaw are very close on societal issues and they have the same position on several subjects. 
The election of the new Prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announces alliances rather than a withdrawal for Italy. 

As opposed to the 2018 elections, European subjects were not in the center of the 2022 legislative campaign. Italy has yet to receive about two thirds of what was allocated to it by the European Recovery Plan. The economy in Italy is not going so well, this country is over-indebted. So, it is in the interest of the country to remain linked to the EU.