Many more journalists than activists waited for Giorgia Meloni in the salons of the Roman hotel that she had chosen as her headquarters on the evening of the legislative elections on Sunday 25 September. And it was in the middle of the night, at half past two in the morning, that the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (post-fascist) party appeared all smiles behind the desk, on the notes of the summer 1975 hit, Ma il cielo e semper piu blu, of Rino Gaetano, who accompanied her throughout her electoral campaign.
The song does not lie: blue has been the traditional color of the Alliance of Rights since its birth in 1994. And unquestionably, Italy, at the end of this vote, is much bluer than before.
With more than 26% of the vote, Fratelli d’Italia has won the dazzling success that the polls had promised it for several months, and the right-wing alliance to which it belongs obtains, with more than 44% of the vote, a clear and clear, both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. Yet it was without triumphalism and in an unusually serious and measured tone that Giorgia Meloni took the floor to announce that she claimed “a government led by Fratelli d’Italia” for the next legislature.
After denouncing the campaign “violent” and ” agressive “ that her party would have, according to her, suffered, Giorgia Meloni appealed to the “reciprocal respect”before launching to his supporters that it will be a question, as of tomorrow, “to show our worth” and that the challenge in the future would be to“uniting the Italians”. A slightly cryptic reference to the troubled origins of his movement, heir to the complex history of post-war fascism (“I dedicate this victory to all the people who are no longer here and who deserved to live this night”), a quotation from Saint Francis of Assisi to close her speech of less than ten minutes, and the great winner of the evening had already left, promising her audience the rest for the next day.
Consolidating the Alliance of Rights
If she is playing the leading roles on the national scene for the first time, Giorgia Meloni, at 45, is already an experienced parliamentarian. She, who has been elected to the Chamber of Deputies continuously since 2006 – and is therefore starting her sixth term – is aware that after the victory, the real difficulties begin. Admittedly, with more than a quarter of the vote, Fratelli d’Italia will be the leading group in the next legislature, but that does not mean that power will fall into its arms like a ripe fruit.
You have 68.61% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.