Giorgia Meloni, born in Rome 45 year-old Italian politician and journalist, the president of right-wing populist party Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) since 2014 and the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party since 2020. A month before the election in September, her party is polling around 24 percent which puts her on course to lead a right-wing coalition government.
Former fascists after World War II founded the Italian Social Movement (MSI) from which the Brothers of Italy takes its origins. The party’s symbol still contains the flame of the MSI and Mussolini’s descendants have stood as candidates. So the party has been criticized for its fascist history and revival plans of it. Brothers of Italy leads a coalition that includes Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
She published a video in three languages, English, French and Spanish, tackling with the criticism. International suggestions that a government led by her “is a danger to democracy and European and international stability” were unjustified, she said in a video message. “For years, I have also had the honor of leading the European Conservative Party,” she said, adding that this grouping in the European Parliament “shares values and experiences with the British Tories, the U.S. Republicans and the Israeli Likud.”The Brothers of Italy “unambiguously condemn Nazism and communism” and “fiercely oppose any anti-democratic drift,” Meloni added. The right consigned fascism to history decades ago, she claimed, “unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and ignominious anti-Jewish laws.”
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi supported her and revealed his plan to run for the office after the ban being lifted by a court in 2018. “I think I’ll run for the Senate, so we’ll make everyone happy, after receiving pressure from so many, even outside Forza Italia,” he said on Rai Radio 1 station.
English version of the video message: