Meloni won the election but will she be allowed to govern?

by John Spiteri Gingell

The results are out. Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) – are the clear winners of Italy’s latest election. FDI came out first in all of Italy’s provinces bar literally a few exceptions – I believe the left won only in Bologna (what a surprise) and Florence while Cinque Stelle won some province somewhere down in the South. In the context of Italian politics, this is as clear a mandate as one can hope for. And this mandate to govern has been handed to her despite the concerted effort by the European media to label Meloni as the incarnation of Mussolini, and even the outright threat by none other than the EU commission to punish the Italian voters if they dared elect her and her party.

Even the local lefties, starting with the Times of Malta and culminating in a long convoluted diatribe by James Debono at Malta Today could not resist the temptation to join in the bashing.

Here though, we have the incredible story of a woman, who despite being born to a single mother in the suburbs of Rome, and despite the challenges of competing in a male-dominated world, while taking care of a child, has taken a political party with a mere 4% of the vote in 2018 under her wing and in just 4 years took them to power (a note for aspiring local Conservative political parties – the road to power is not impossible – the electorate is crying out for a real alternative – but they need to be led by someone with at least half her charisma and discipline backed up with a proper vision and credible policies).

Indeed Meloni is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister. One would have thought that the left would rejoice at such a result – this is after all what real feminism should look like – but they are downcast and bitter, precisely because the likes of Meloni destroy their narrative – the narrative of perpetual victimhood – that women are not good enough to get ahead under their own steam, that men would always vote to keep women out, to oppress them, that we need quotas to ensure a fair representation. Meloni just blew that narrative away and they despise her precisely for it.

Meloni won the electoral race and the popular will – but that does not automatically translate into being allowed to govern. In fact, her challenge is only starting. She faces a vast apparatus, not just of Italian bureaucracy – but the entire Italian deep state which will do anything to undermine her – here we are talking about the whole leftist infrastructure: the media, universities, well-funded NGOs, and even the judiciary (the same judiciary that sought to condemn Matteo Salvini to jail for having the temerity to defend Italy’s borders as he was elected to do). If that wasn’t enough, she also has to square up to the EU – who has already made it clear that she’s not welcome. This is not some empty threat – the EU really has the ‘tools’ that von der Leyen spoke about – one has to understand that Italy is no longer sovereign economically – ever since they gave up its currency, Italian budgets like ours have to earn the EU’s blessing – furthermore, the EU appointed former prime minister Mario Draghi has approved the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) that has essentially placed Italy’s financial policy totally at the EU’s mercy – as has the so-called Covid Recovery fund – please read this article to understand how deeply the EU holds the levers on the Italian economy.

Indeed Draghi was quite blunt when he spelled out to the political parties in parliament that: “You have no real power, just accept it.”

Therein lies Meloni’s challenge – will she accept it? – will she really take the bull by the horns? in order to do so, she must first reestablish the Italian electorate’s sovereignty over their own destiny. She must take more than a leaf or two from Victor Orban’s book – perhaps Europe’s most canny conservative who knows how to get dirty and what it takes to take on the left and beat it squarely at its own game not least by dismantling its infrastructure.

My guess is that she won’t – hopefully, she will surprise me, she is after all a woman, and Conservatives unlike leftists like nothing better than a real woman – she has proven herself inspirational, savvy, and tenacious, but will that be enough? But even if she fails because of the constant undermining – it will still be a success – for with every conservative government elected that ends up being sabotaged by the left and by the EU – the electorate will increasingly realise what is at stake – and learn that despite the billions spent in PR to prove otherwise, the EU is fundamentally and irrevocably an anti-democratic supranational project – one designed from its inception to do away with its member states in the quest to create a federal Europe ruled by an unaccountable elite.

My guess is that Meloni’s government is simply another necessary stepping stone in that direction. It will fall – and with its fall – the bitterness and anger will continue to rise – until alas the European population will ultimately settle the matter on the streets since thanks to the EU – it is increasingly pointless to do so at the ballot box.