Right-Wing Populist Party "Brothers of Italy" Stomps Rivals in Sunday Election, Led by Firebrand and Implacable Foe of Lockdowns Georgia Meloni
Updated, With Parliament Balance-of-Power

Projected number of seats (seggi) in the Senate (top)
and the Chamber of Deputies (bottom); Center-Right in blue

The left is, of course, melting down. They cannot believe that Italy has chosen a pro-family, pro-religion traditionalist party.

Italy! Can you believe it?!

The New York Times:

Giorgia Meloni Wins Voting in Italy, in Breakthrough for Europe's Hard Right

Italy turned a page of European history on Sunday by electing a hard-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, whose long record of bashing the European Union, international bankers and migrants has sown concern about the nation's reliability in the Western alliance.

Results released early Monday showed that Ms. Meloni, the leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy, a party descended from the remnants of fascism, had led a right-wing coalition to a majority in Parliament, defeating a fractured left and a resurgent anti-establishment movement.

The Italian fascist party was destroyed in 1945. What the hell does it mean that these are the "descendants of fascism"? That they have similar concerns? Is the Times suggesting people should stop being concerned about their borders Because 1941 Fascism?

That is what they're saying, of course.

It will still be weeks before the new Italian Parliament is seated and a new government is formed, leaving plenty of time for political machinations and horse trading in a coalition with major differences. But Ms. Meloni's strong showing, with about 26 percent of the vote, the highest of any single party, makes her the prohibitive favorite to become the country's first female prime minister.

While she is a strong supporter of Ukraine, her coalition partners deeply admire Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, and have criticized sanctions against Russia.

"From the Italians has arrived a clear indication," Ms. Meloni, known for her crescendoing rhetoric and cult of personality, said in a victory speech at nearly 3 a.m., "for the center-right to guide Italy."

After saying she had suffered through a "violent electoral campaign" filled with unfair attacks, Ms. Meloni spoke about "reciprocal respect" and recreating "trust in the institutions." She posed flashing a victory sign. "We are at the starting point," she said, adding, "Italy chose us, and we will never betray it."

In Italian, she said, "L'Italia ha scelto noi, e noi non tradiremo L'Italia." The "tra-" in that last word is seen in "betray" and "treason" in English.

The Times frets that the "hard right" is winning across Europe, and chooses to highlight skinheads as decisive parts of winning coalitions, as if they account for more than 1% of the population.

They ignore the millions of farmers and workers and mothers and fathers deciding that they must vote against the left to merely survive.

No, it's all about the skinheads. Skinheads are the Soccer Moms of Europe.

The victory, in an election with lower turnout than usual, comes as formerly taboo and marginalized parties with Nazi or fascist heritages are entering the mainstream -- and winning elections -- across Europe.

This month, a hard-right group founded by neo-Nazis and skinheads became the largest party in Sweden's likely governing coalition. In France this year, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen -- for a second consecutive time -- reached the final round of presidential elections. In Spain, the hard-right Vox, a party closely aligned with Ms. Meloni, is surging.

But it is Italy, the birthplace of fascism and a founding member of the European Union, that has sent the strongest shock wave across the continent after a period of European-centric stability led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who directed hundreds of billions of euros in recovery funds to modernize Italy and helped lead Europe's strong response to Russia.

"This is a sad day for the country," Debora Serracchiani, a leader of the Democratic Party, which underperformed and will now lead the opposition, said in a statement Monday.

In case you haven't seen Ms. Meloni speaking yet, let me show you why the left is so terrified.

Note that she uses "identity" in a way that we in America aren't accustomed to. It has a different valence, as they say. She's talking about an argument between the globalists and the nationalists, for example, where the globalists say "There is nothing particularly 'Italian' about Italians, we are all interchangeable consumers and workers in the planetary market." Whereas she says, "No, we are Italians, that means something important."

Similarly, when she says, below, "Yes to sexual identity," she means that there is an identity of "man" and "woman" and these are neither interchangeable or changeable.

Here's a translation of her speech there:

Ismaine @1smaine

Italy's New Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's speech.

Note she's not Prime Minister yet. She's not guaranteed the slot; she's just the prohibitive favorite. The center-right got 44% of the vote, and her party alone got 26%, the most of any party. They surged to that level from 4% in 2018.

Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening? There is a single answer to all these questions because it defines us because it is our identity, because everything that defines us is now an enemy.

For those who would like us to no longer have an identity and to simply be perfect consumer slaves and so they attack national identity. They attack religious identity. The attack gender identity. they attack family identity.

I can't define myself as an Italian, Christian, woman, mother. Nope. I must be Citizen X, gender X, parent one, parent two. I must be a number.

Because when I am only a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators, the perfect consumer. that's the reason why that's why we inspire so much fear.

That's why this event inspires so much fear because we do not want to be numbers. We will defend the value of the human being. Every single human being because each of us has a unique genetic code that is unrepeatable. And like it or not, that it's sacred.

We will defend it, we will defend God, country and family
those things that disgust people so much. we will do it to defend our freedom. Because we will never be slave or simple consumers at the mercy of financial speculators. That is our mission.

That is why I came here today. Chesterton wrote more than a century ago. Fires will be kindled to testify that two and to make for four. swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.

A fuller version of the Chesterton passage she's quoting reads:

"Truths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion. And the scepticism of our time does not really destroy the beliefs, rather it creates them; gives them their limits and their plain and defiant shape. We who are Liberals once held Liberalism lightly as a truism. Now it has been disputed, and we hold it fiercely as a faith. We who believe in patriotism once thought patriotism to be reasonable, and thought little more about it. Now we know it to be unreasonable, and know it to be right. We who are Christians never knew the great philosophic common sense which inheres in that mystery until the anti-Christian writers pointed it out to us. The great march of mental destruction will go on. Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed. It is a reasonable position to deny the stones in the street; it will be a religious dogma to assert them. It is a rational thesis that we are all in a dream; it will be a mystical sanity to say that we are all awake. Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer. We shall be left defending, not only the incredible virtues and sanities of human life, but something more incredible still, this huge impossible universe which stares us in the face. We shall fight for visible prodigies as if they were invisible. We shall look on the impossible grass and the skies with a strange courage. We shall be of those who have seen and yet have believed."

The Times says this:

Ms. Meloni came of political age in a post-Fascist, hard right that sought to redefine itself by seizing on new symbols and texts, especially "The Lord of the Rings" and other works by the British writer J.R.R. Tolkien, to distance itself from the taboos of Fascism.

More leftist fear:

Ms. Meloni's victory showed that the allure of nationalism -- of which she is a strong advocate -- remained undimmed, despite the breakthroughs by E.U. nations in coming together to pool sovereignty and resources in recent years, first to combat the coronavirus pandemic and then Mr. Putin's initiation of the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.

How, and how deeply, a right-wing coalition in Italy led by Ms. Meloni could threaten that cohesion is now the foremost concern of the European establishment.

As usual, and as in the United States, most of the evidence of "fascism" comes from opposition to open borders:

She grew up with a single mother in a working-class area of Rome, and being a woman, and mother, has been central to her political identity.

Being a woman has also distinguished her, and marked a major shift, from her coalition partners, especially Mr. Berlusconi, the subject of endless sex scandals.

But Ms. Meloni, Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Salvini share a hard-right vision for the country. Ms. Meloni has called for a naval blockade against migrants and spread fears about a "great replacement" of native Italians. The three share populist proposals for deep tax cuts that economists fear would inflate Italy's already enormous debt, and a traditionalist view of the family.

If you're not a globalist, you're a fascist. If you believe that countries are real and that citizenship means something -- if you don't join John Lennon in "imagin[ing] there's no country" -- you're a fascist.

The same as in America.

NeverTrumpers are all globalist pricks. Among the worst and most cultish of them.

Ursula von der Leyen is head of the European Union commission and has threatened Italy's right-wing, saying there will be "consequences" if it departs from "democratic principles." Which was never suggested.

She means open borders, again, probably.

Meloni was a fierce opponent of covid lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates.

This is the victory that produced. Provinces where the center right (where her Fratelli d'Italia was the largest party) in light blue.

Is the GOP going to finally run on this or nah?

Update: A commenter asked how can 26% be a mandate?

Well, Fratelli d'Italia is one of many parties. They're part of the Center-Right (Centro Destro) coalition. The center right coalition got 44%; FdI got 26%, the most of any individual party.

Remember, these percentages are of national cumulative vote totals. But the races are held in districts, and whoever gets 50%+1 wins that district.

So, what that means is: If you get 44% nationally, you win a lot more than 44% of seats, because while there may be districts in leftwing areas where you only get 15% or 20%, there are going to be a lot of districts where you get 55% or 60% or 70%.

Below, an estimate of how many seats -- Seggi -- the center right is projected to win in the House (Camera) and the Senate (Senato).

As you can see, the center right has an outright majority of seats.

Updated, With Parliament Balance-of-Power&bodytext= Projected number of seats (seggi) in the Senate (top) and the Chamber of Deputies (bottom); Center-Right in blue The left is, of course, melting down. They cannot believe that Italy has chosen a pro-family, pro-religion traditionalist party. Italy! Can...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 12:16 PM

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