Stability can become a waste

Pragmatism: a quality and a flaw. Realism: a vice and a virtue. By avoiding a list-style approach – the sort of ‘list of achievements’ in the style of Berlusconi of yesteryear – it seems to me that we can use this ambivalence to take stock of Meloni’s four years in office on this record-breaking day. Giorgia Meloni has a knack for understanding reality; she knows how to navigate with caution through the – not insignificant – obstacles of the Italian and international context. Yet she has also turned realism into an excuse for doing little or nothing, with the risk that stability—guaranteed by a Parliament devoid of pitfalls or room for manoeuvre due to the centre-left’s initial error in 2022—will be squandered, veiled by a desire for revenge transferred from her initial position as a minority to her present position of power and claim to hegemony. In this regard, I concur with the analyses – (above all Valerio Valentini’s excellent essay La marcia sul posto) – which give a thumbs-up to support for Ukraine and the Europe that defends it, to the cut in the Superbonus and to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s prudence, but which give a thumbs-down to economic policies, reforms and relations with the media. I would also add the institutional clashes with the judiciary and, at times, with the Quirinale, as well as the uncritical embrace of ‘Trumpism’ prior to the recent rifts.