MSNBC opinion columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat blasted the alleged “fascist credentials” of incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a column on Tuesday and claimed that her “extremism” is “familiar” to those who follow supposed “authoritarian” regimes in Florida and Texas.
Ben-Ghiat wrote that Meloni’s political positions of being against “gender ideology,” “LGBT lobbies” and “same-sex unions,” as well as being pro-border control, make her an authoritarian leader. The piece also warned that Meloni is a friend of the Republican Party in the U.S. and wrote that her delivery “recalls that of Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini.
Ben-Ghiat’s latest column, titled, “Giorgia Meloni’s win will make her a new Republican favorite,” painted Italy’s first female prime minister as a fascist, which in turn makes her someone worthy of praise for conservatives in America.
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The piece opened by mentioning how former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini would appreciate that Meloni has the job. Ben-Ghiat wrote, “Il Duce might not have been displeased that Meloni will have the job he once filled, given her past praise for him as a leader, fruit of her years of militancy in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement party, founded in 1946 to preserve Italian Fascism. Her party’s slogan, ‘God, Fatherland, Family,’ dates back to the regime.”
She claimed that, because of Meloni, “Italy will become more enmeshed in far-right networks that stretch from Vladimir Putin’s Russia to Viktor Orban’s Hungary to Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil to Republican America.”
Doubling down on “Republican America” being a place where some of the world’s most fascistic impulses reside, and therefore a welcoming place for Meloni, the author added, “Many of her positions will seem familiar to those who follow authoritarian politicians around the world, including in places like Florida and Texas.”
The column mentioned the specific policies that allegedly make Meloni such an authoritarian. “Meloni opposes ‘gender ideology,’ ‘LGBT lobbies’, and same-sex unions that harm ‘the natural family.’ She believes that nonwhite immigration threatens Italian identity — and her version of Great Replacement theory, which she calls ‘ethnic substitution,’ is among the most extreme of its type.”
In addition, Ben-Ghiat wrote, “She sees a deliberate plot by the right’s favorite enemies, such as George Soros and the European Union, to impose mass immigration on Europe and wreck White Christian civilization.” She quoted the incoming prime minister, who in 2019 stated, “I think there is a deliberate plan to erase everything that identifies us: culture, Nation, family are under attack.”
To further sell Meloni’s extremism, Ben-Ghiat wrote how she associates with the Republican Party. “As Meloni told The Washington Post, her party feels a kinship with the GOP, and she is in frequent dialogue with Steve Bannon and Republican politicians.”
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The column noted Meloni even “praised Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast (she was the only Italian politician invited) for his elevation of ‘God, fatherland and family.’” She also spoke at “CPAC Orlando along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
Ben-Ghiat claimed, “Like many Republicans, Meloni has done her best to present her extremism as mainstream and unexceptional.” But, the author added, “her radical positions and belligerent persona suggest otherwise.”
She then discounted commentators who claim that Meloni won’t have enough time in power to cement authoritarianism in the government. She wrote, “That might be true. But history teaches us that whenever extremism is normalized, its effects remain in the culture. Silvio Berlusconi’s 1994 center-right coalition only lasted six months, but broke the taboos against neo-fascist participation in government, creating a new reality that made Meloni’s career as a mainstream politician possible.”
She added, “Each step toward normalization paved the way for today’s unprecedented situation: a prime minister of a major European country who admires Mussolini and has direct links to neo-fascism.”
Ben-Ghiat compared Meloni’s extremism to the GOP’s own extremism one more time, writing, “Meloni’s fascist credentials will likely make her another GOP favorite as Republican America creates its own new political reality to support its dream of illiberal rule.”
