Meloni's Conservative Revolution

The Anglophone media fails to capture the Prime Minister's vision for Italy

Giorgia Meloni is set to become the most right-wing prime minister since the end of the Second World War, at least according to Ms. Meloni. She proudly defines herself and her party, Fratelli d’Italia, as staunchly right-wing, but the political distinctions between Left and Right have become increasingly unclear; in our hyper-polarised, reflexively antagonist political discourse “Left” and “Right” are pejorative rather than descriptive terms. This terminological cloudiness is compounded by the fact that the continental European conceptions of the Left and Right differ profoundly from those of their Anglo-Saxon cousins.

The Pseudo-Dichotomy of Left and Right: Continental vs. Anglo-Saxon Politics 

Since the Cold War, the Anglosphere Right has broadly been defined by adherence to the ideology of free markets and individual rights—the politics of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. De-regulation, tax cuts, and GDP growth are the three cardinal commandments of this religion of unfettered productivity. Social policies, by contrast, have largely been neglected, leaving free rein for the social and cultural fabric of society to be dominated by the Left. This ideology has remained ingrained in the U.S. Republican Party and the British Conservative Party. To this day, they remain largely libertarian; “fiscally conservative, and socially liberal.” Their ideas are rooted in the philosophies of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman—even Adam Smith, their precursor, believed in some form of regulation for the public good. But ideas of fairness and equity have largely faded from this right-wing worldview.

European, and especially Italian conservatism is taking a different route. To be clear, Ms. Meloni’s fiscal policies are more capitalist in character than those of the Italian Socialists and Communists, but these parties have all but disappeared from Italy’s political field. She’s a disciple not just of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), but of Berlusconi’s party, which largely conformed to the ‘90s trend that prioritised economic growth. The absence of an Italian left-wing populist leader (in the vein of Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders) can be explained by the enduring presence of an extensive welfare state in Italy, one which Mr. Berlusconi—unlike Thatcher or Reagan—was largely unwilling to dismantle, and which Ms. Meloni also seeks to keep relatively intact.

Headlines have repeatedly trumpeted Ms. Meloni’s “far-right” and “post-fascist” credentials and her party’s uglier roots, but little attention has been paid to her electoral programme. Substance is more telling than appearance. While Ms. Meloni has been clear in denouncing the horrors of fascism and Nazism, her programme is firmly focused on the future, rather than the past. For Anglophone conservatives, still choosing the reanimated corpses of Thatcher and Reagan to lead them, Ms. Meloni offers a potentially revolutionary antidote to an increasingly archaic libertarian philosophy that continues to affect conservative politics. Her platform extended beyond the derided “dog-whistle policies”—halting immigration, with a naval blockade on Libya’s shore, if necessary, and challenging the Franco-German domination of the European Union—it pledges to leverage the power of the state to help mothers and families, to create a neo-Renaissance artistic vision, to defend the national greatness of local agricultural foods, to protect the environment and, lastly, to invest in clean energy. 

Defending Mothers and the Family

Italy has the lowest birthrate in Western Europe—a dying population is hardly a recipe for a society that can thrive in the future, especially one that is already buried in debt. It is no surprise then that the first chapter in Fratelli d’Italia’s programme details a pro-natalist policy. It includes supporting families with 300 euros a month for their first year after their child’s birth, and 260 euros thereafter until the child turns 18. The programme also entails a reduction of taxes on essential products for infants, from diapers, to feeding bottles, to artificial milk. 

The proposals provide support for working mothers by incentivising firms to hire new mothers and to offer conciliatory working-home hours for women, and by guaranteeing free nurseries until the end of working hours, allowing working mothers to reconcile their commitments to their families with their careers. More economic backing is also planned for families with disabled children. On the subject of abortion, Ms. Meloni displays a level of tact that is missing from the American fiasco; while she proposes no change to Italy’s 12-week abortion law, her pro-natalism finds expression in a proposed fund to financially support single mothers in bringing their pregnancy to term. Lastly, she commits to providing financial support and assistance to recently divorced couples, to help newly separated families make ends meet and provide for their children. These last couple of points demonstrate that Ms. Meloni’s Catholic beliefs are more cultural than integralist; she believes in accommodating Catholicism with modern cultural norms.

A pro-natalist, pro-family policy necessarily requires a bigger, more interventionist state than can be accommodated by the Anglophone conception of right-wing libertarian governance. Ms. Meloni’s proposals make clear that she isn’t afraid to utilise Italy’s welfare apparatus in the implementation of a natalist policy that is necessary for her country to grow.

Neo-Renaissance Future 

In today’s world, the economics of praxis with a productivist ethos have largely neglected the value of the arts—modern and contemporary art is produced economically, with the minimal outlay of time, cost and skill. Ms. Meloni seeks to re-centre art as a means of cultural expression and revival of national identity.

Ms. Meloni is aware that this entails the protection of Italy’s vast artistic, cultural and architectural heritage—the largest UNESCO heritage in the world—and her party commits to celebrating the history of the great Italian artists, in schools and in the country at large. But on this issue, Ms. Meloni is also characteristically forward thinking and ambitious: “To give support and protection to Italy’s culture, to its artists, to the creators of our imagination means projecting into the future the new Italian Renaissance.” Her vision is of a new Italian imagination; an engagement with culture that extends beyond the galleries and museums, the grand piazzas, palazzos and tourist attractions of the major cities. She also envisions an artistic ecosystem reborn through active participation and engagement in festivals and regional events; an appreciation of and devotion to beauty in her country wherever it is found. And, given her working class background, that includes recreating artistic beauty in neglected peripheries and towns, including through street art.

These proposals are, in part, a reaction to prevailing iconoclastic trends in the West, which she believes “threaten the symbols of our identity”. Fratelli d’Italia’s solution doesn’t limit itself to eradicating the threat, but also to strengthen those symbols with renewed meaning through public engagement with art as an expression of culture. It is hard to find any right-wing politicians in the U.S. and U.K. who place comparable emphasis on artistic expression; their philosophies are rooted in the economics of the industrial revolution, which has largely negated the beauty of pre-modern art.

Neo-Agricultural Nationalism 

“Agriculture is one of the pillars of our Nation, we have to protect and develop its potential, in the right equilibrium between man and nature.” This slightly vague statement of intent to open the chapter entails a number of concrete emphases designed to protect both agricultural producers and the consuming public from the worsening pressures of globalisation. Rather than embracing the bulk importation of a wild variety of non-native products, the ethics and environmental implications of which are murky, Ms. Meloni’s programme is intent on reversing this trend by focusing on preserving and exalting her country’s unique agricultural and food products. In the pursuit of this aim, Ms. Meloni alludes to changing diets to promote healthy habits, through the “promotion of the Mediterranean diet, and agricultural food, against synthetic foods.”

The prevailing logic among the Right in the U.K. and U.S. is that an over-abundance of choice is necessary both for the efficiency of markets and to allow for unburdened pursuits of the individual good—the “I do as I please” philosophy. Moreover, that markets self-regulate optimally through consumer choice. Ms. Meloni’s stance represents a resistance to the primacy of the markets and naked consumerism, a resistance she believes is a necessary corrective measure in a world where local producers are squeezed and consumers are bombarded by a galaxy of products that are harmful to their health. Lastly, in further opposition to this globalised worldview, Fratelli d’Italia aims to fight against “phenomena that create unfair competition and penalise our agricultural food brand”. These positions—protectionist in character and interventionist in scope—stand in stark contrast with the free-trade, global capitalist trend that Anglophone conservatives have adopted.

Protecting the Environment 

Ms. Meloni’s priorities are succinctly expressed when she states, “either we take care of our environment or everything else will be meaningless.” This formulation, whereby political goals are pursued within the confines of an ecological imperative, is a complete reversal of the British and American right-wing schema, in which “the environment” is merely one of many policy options subservient to economic expediency, or their reflexive antagonism to the Left’s insistence on the threat posed by climate change. Fratelli d’Italia states that it recognises the looming existential threat presented by “climate change, pollution, and the destruction of biodiversity”. Ms. Meloni commits to cleaning lakes and rivers from pollution, planting new trees and creating green areas in cities, and strengthening sustainable public transport as a replacement to automobiles. More importantly, she advocates for the introduction of trade tariffs on products originating from outside the EU that fail to respect Europe’s standards on environmental protection. Her party also believes in the progressive replacement of non-biodegradable substances with biodegradable ones—which will likely require some kind of market intervention—and the policy of “recycle and reuse” by lowering costs on households that recycle effectively.   

Protecting the environment has almost exclusively been a cause associated with the Left, thanks to the Right’s insistence on preserving free-markets without consideration of the negative environmental externalities. In both the U.K. and the U.S., right-wing legislators are significantly less likely to vote in favour of climate control bills than those from other parties. Somewhat tellingly, they are also far more heavily invested in fossil fuel companies. Against this backdrop, it is near-impossible for the Anglophone Right to show credible care for the environment. 

Investing in Clean Energy 

Given the looming energy crisis and the interests that her coalition partners—Mr. Salvini and Mr. Berlusconi—represent, Ms. Meloni will have to wage and win a battle on two fronts. She must win over a public increasingly concerned about surging energy prices and correspondingly sceptical of maintaining sanctions against Russia. She must also maintain a coalition that looks poised to fracture on this issue—Mr. Salvini’s party relies on the support from the industrial north, while Mr. Berlusconi’s party relies on the support of the bourgeois establishment, both factions whose financial fortunes rely on a cheap and predictable supply of energy.

To overcome this obstacle, Ms. Meloni proposes state intervention to curtail financial speculation on primary materials—a stark contrast to British conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has recently bent the knee to financial speculators by lifting a cap meant to limit bankers’ bonuses. Fratelli d’Italia also commits to invest in scientific and technological research to create an autonomous supply of clean, sustainable energy, including nuclear power, in Europe. Interestingly, these investments in the future come with corresponding demands on the Italian population: Another point of Ms. Meloni’s programme involves encouraging “virtuous behaviours” from the consuming public, designed to ingrain an environmentalist ethos and generate savings on energy.  

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So, where do Ms Meloni’s policy commitments place her in the Left/Right dichotomy? To many in the Anglosphere, her ideas are representative of either left-wing authoritarianism or fascist illiberalism, illustrating the confusion and senselessness of our bifurcated discourse. This discourse relies on easy distinctions and neat dividing lines: Compassionate “big government” is for left-wingers’ bleeding hearts; right-wingers are beholden only to the bottom line. The Right are stooges for the petro-industrial complex; environmentalism is the domain of the Left. Protectionist lefties vs. free-marketeers. Ms. Meloni’s policy platform challenges this apparent dichotomy and throws light on the poverty of its conceptions.

However, Ms. Meloni is up against powerful elites and has already shown that she isn’t immune to the tides of geopolitics and public opinion: her Eurosceptic sentiments have already waned, and her foreign policy has notably shifted towards the U.S. and NATO. Other leaders have proposed radical reformations before and failed to bring them to fruition. Perhaps, she too will conform to the crude categories that Western political discourse imposes on its public figures—especially given how the Anglophone world still holds supremacy over overseas ideologies. But Ms. Meloni might be able to marshall her right-wing coalition and implement her blend of nationalism, interventionism and cultural renewal in seeking to transform “the perfect consumers, at the mercy of financial speculators”, as she states, into the joint owners of a more virtuous, independent and uniquely Italian community. Ms. Meloni won’t fail for lack of ambition. As she said, this is just the beginning—now is the time to prove her leadership.