Meloni is the government’s only real reform

All the extremely complicated and tedious issues surrounding the ‘mutilated’ electoral law on preferential voting, and the hidden yet conspicuous rift within the parliamentary majority – which is a severe, albeit not definitive, blow to the Prime Minister’s ability to provide political leadership; the whole issue of a possible snap election and the kind of election campaign that might unfold, with a centre-left heavily influenced by a demagogic platform, naively or cunningly pacifist on foreign and security policy, portraying a country that does not exist, an Italy brought to its knees by a spineless right-wing government, which manufactures weapons and dismantles the public health service; all of this may ultimately lead to a deeply worrying cultural and systemic backlash. Add to this the resurgence of a militant right-wing core, cloaked in the guise of novelty and with its roots in the Italian army, in short, ‘Vannaccism’ – a phenomenon of political defiance against Meloni and her way of being, of governing, and of aligning with the European mainstream and its characteristics – the risk is that Meloni will abandon the balances built up over four years and be driven to erect a defensive perimeter that abolishes the very innovation she herself represents. Not the world turned upside down, but Meloni turned upside down. The only reform Meloni has genuinely carried out is Meloni herself. It is a miracle that the democratic foundation of the Italian system has expanded to include a right wing that was outside the constitutional framework, afflicted by nostalgia, holding positions that are now relegated to Vannacci and Alemanno.

Following the demise of the traditional constitutional parties, we have filtered and absorbed everything, from the Berlusconi phenomenon – of which people often recall the extravagances but not the substance – the emergence, through him, of alternating governments; to technocratic governments; to the Five Star Movement; to ‘Salvinism’; to the extreme parliamentary system of party coalitions lacking direct electoral legitimacy; right up to these last four years, in which Meloni has Europeanised and made presentable a small party that exploded electorally after a long cycle of vociferous and demagogic opposition. It is only to be expected that the opposition would seek to oust her and replace her, and that they would scrutinise her rigorously and tenaciously in parliament and across the country, finding openings and landing their blows; this is part of the game, and it is a good thing. But if the pincer movement between right-wing and left-wing ‘Putinisms’ were to prevail, if a demagogic assault were to be launched that lacks any serious political substance, and is ideologically no less suspect than the right-wing ruling class that led the government – and to some extent still does – the result would be to force Meloni, in her quest to regain lost support, into a role that is the opposite of what she has sought to embody over the past four years.

She did not go to Paris with Mattarella to celebrate a 14 July staged as a defensive and counter-offensive barrier by the EU against the boundless and aggressive ambitions of Putin’s Russia – a bad sign that she fears public outcry hostile to solidarity with Ukraine. If Schlein were unable to lead the centre-left coalition under the banner of a clear and strong opposition in both struggle and programme, whilst also fostering mutual recognition of value, and with a convergent stance on the major issues of the war against war – and thus a peace not understood as unconditional surrender, which is the position of her allies and the anti-Meloni right – the result would be disastrous. The legitimate alternative would take on a disturbing reddish-brown hue, and the price to pay would be a backtracking by the ruling right-wing on its efforts to reform itself following the rhetorical follies of its time in opposition. Perhaps this will not happen, should the process of Europeanisation prove irreversible, as is to be hoped, but would it be in the common interest of this country and its political system for the governing right to revert to the tone, manner and policies it adopted whilst in opposition?