Occhiuto: “The right should learn from Trump’s defeat. Farewell to populism”

“Rather than focusing on who won, I believe it is important to focus on what sort of right-wing movement has lost. I think that, if they read the situation correctly, Trump’s defeat could be good news for American Republicans. But also for the European right. I hope that here in Italy there will no longer be anyone who dreams of emulating the tycoon’s populist right.” Roberto Occhiuto, President of Calabria and Deputy Secretary of Forza Italia, had been among those most willing to come out in favour of the US President’s defeat in the mid-term elections. Now that this scenario has actually come to pass, speaking to Il Foglio, the Forza Italia politician appears relieved. “The US Republican Party certainly did not start out as Trump’s party. It has a glorious liberal tradition. It is the party of Lincoln, founded for freedom against slavery; of Roosevelt, who broke up the monopolies; and of Reagan, who is often likened to Trump but is in fact his opposite. The US President won by playing on people’s fears, but the public turned their backs on him mainly because of failed policies such as tariffs. A promise of protection that backfired on him. That is why I believe this could be an opportunity for a major reset, for a return to a more liberal right-wing tradition.” One party that has never embraced Trump’s positions is Forza Italia. So much so that even yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani reiterated: “Our point of reference, and that of the European People’s Party in America, is the Republican Party. Having relations with the Republicans does not mean being a Trump supporter. I have never been a MAGA supporter and never will be.” Even though, for the most part, the League continues to say things like: “He lost because he stopped being a MAGA supporter.”

“If the centre-right decides to copy Trump, it is choosing to regress towards a populist right rather than a liberal right; it risks paying the price first-hand for this lesson it can now observe for free,” Occhiuto observes. In his view, however, Giorgia Meloni has already shown herself to be different from the nationalist right of recent GOP years. “A modern conservative,” is how the Forza Italia member describes her. “And the Prime Minister is quite right to keep the centre-right’s doors closed to the Italian populist right because, yes, there is no shortage of ground on which to take root and it might well deliver those 4–5 percentage points that would guarantee victory, but it would make governing impossible. The issue isn’t that populism is tiresome; people’s insecurities are even stronger and more widespread today than they were some time ago. The issue is that kind of populism which uses people’s fears as a shield but then, when put to the test of government, fails to provide answers.” So, is Forza Italia the party that stands to gain the most from the Trump debacle? “We have always been something different, but we must be so with even greater determination and greater incisiveness. It is in the interests of the European right to have a genuinely liberal party. It allows us to demonstrate that we are radically different from the populist right, which in Europe, America and the rest of the West is revealing its full fragility.”