Giorgia Meloni, the relatively new prime minister of Italy, sure has the press in a lather…still. They’d worked themselves into a frenzy at the thought of her possibly getting elected…

Italian Voters Appear Ready to Turn a Page for Europe
With the hard-right candidate Giorgia Meloni ahead before Sunday’s election, Italy could get its first leader whose party traces its roots to the wreckage of Fascism.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s hard-right leader, resents having to talk about Fascism. She has publicly, and in multiple languages, said that the Italian right has “handed Fascism over to history for decades now.” She argued that “the problem with Fascism in Italy always begins with the electoral campaign,” when the Italian left, she said, wheels out “the black wave” to smear its opponents.

But none of that matters now, she insisted in an interview this month, because Italians do not care. “Italians don’t believe anymore in this garbage,” she said with a shrug.

Ms. Meloni may be proved right on Sunday, when she is expected to be the top vote-getter in Italian elections, a breakthrough far-right parties in Europe have anticipated for decades.

More than 70 years after Nazis and Fascists nearly destroyed Europe, formerly taboo parties with Nazi or Fascist heritages that were long marginalized have elbowed their way into the mainstream. Some are even winning. A page of European history seems to be turning.

(GET IT? SHE’S AN ERMAGERD FASCIST!!!)

…and with her platform, of course, she was freaking the Brussels and progressive crowds out.

Then the doom and chaos prognostications went into overdrive when she wound up winning, in spite of all their best efforts.

Meloni, for her part, ignored them. She simply went to work and not during an easy time to form a government – smack this past fall, in the middle of energy and food shortages, and a war in the neighborhood.

In one instance, leaving the European Union collective to stew in their own short-sighted shortfall juices, she negotiated separate oil trade agreements for Italy with Libya and Iraq, so her country would never be caught short or at the mercy of volatile market swings. She took the initiative, even with an eye to making Italy the point of entry for oil into Europe.

Italy’s Meloni Visits Libya as Eni Signs $8 Billion Energy Deal

• Eni, NOC sign largest gas investment in Libya since 2000
• Meloni says Italy wants to become gas hub for Europe

Girl walks the walk. Leadership, what is it?

As far as Italians are concerned, the four-month-old Meloni government is doing well enough to be rewarded with further gains in a regional election held yesterday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her coalition allies secured emphatic election wins in the two wealthiest regions of the country on Monday, strengthening the right’s grip on power amid growing voter apathy.

Less than five months after sweeping to power at the national level, the conservative bloc took more than 55% of the vote in Lombardy, home to the financial capital Milan, and around 50% in Lazio, which is centred on Rome.

“This result consolidates the centre-right and strengthens the work of the government,” Meloni wrote on Twitter.

It was the first electoral test for Meloni since she won power last September and confirmed that she is still enjoying a strong honeymoon with voters, helped by a weak opposition that failed to present a unified front in either region.

One of her biggest opponents in the American press was thrilled she is outperforming all their very low expectations.

I kid, I kid.

The NY Times is sour-faced, grudgingly conceding, and dripping with condescension about her.

While some still fear an authoritarian turn, Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s hard-right leader, has unexpectedly shown a pragmatic streak since her election, vexing Europe.https://t.co/FKr08MkI31

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 14, 2023

It’s “vexing Europe” that she is NOT IN FACT A FASCIST?! Or that she’s a competent administrator who is attempting to do for her citizens what she said she would?

Malevolent clowns. You can see through their act like rice paper. I mean, read this drivel – the opening first three paragraphs are so revolting.

Italy’s Hard-Right Leader Vexes Europe by Playing Nice, Mostly
Some still fear an authoritarian turn, but Giorgia Meloni has surprised many by showing a pragmatic streak since coming to power. Now Europe is not sure what to do.

In the weeks before Italy elected the hard-right leader Giorgia Meloni, the left sounded “the alarm for Italian democracy.” The European Union braced for Italy to join ranks with members like Hungary and Poland who have challenged the bloc’s core values. International investors worried about spooked markets.

But more than 100 days into her tenure, Ms. Meloni has proved to be less predictable. She has shown flashes of nationalist anger, prompting fears at home and abroad that an authoritarian turn remains just around the corner. But until now, she has also governed in a far less vitriolic and ideological and more practical way.

The unexpected ordinariness of her early days has vexed the European establishment and her Italian critics, prompting relief but also raising a quandary as to what extent the toned-down firebrand should be embraced or still cautiously held at arm’s length.

OOOooo! Some people are still so scared!

Give the hankie a rest, Lucille. (She’s even gotten a budget passed. Where are the author’s smelling salts about what’s going on here at home?)

In a refreshing take, Benjamin Braddock, writing for the American Mind, sees Meloni in ascension. As a pragmatic player on an international stage who may well break the 14-month office-life-span average of Italian governments if she does so.

…After Giorgia Meloni and her coalition partners came to power in the Italian elections last fall, some critics of reflexive Atlanticism expressed hope that her government would break with the antagonistic stance toward Russia espoused by the U.S.-led NATO alliance. These hopes were met with disappointment when Meloni made clear that Italy would retain strong support for Ukraine, as well as close ties and coordination with Washington and London.

…The European Union maintains significant leverage over the Italian economy and fiscal policy, and could send the country into recession simply by invoking some bureaucratic pretense with which to withhold EU-controlled funds. Additionally, the EU could lean on President Mattarella to take various actions which would make governing impossible for Meloni. For Italy, the EU has been the biggest headache and the most active meddler in Italian affairs. Against Brussels, Meloni has chosen the Washington-London axis of the transatlantic alliance in part because she has a genuine affinity for Anglo-flavored conservatism and in part because this faction is less interested in Italy’s domestic policies. There is also the reality that most Americans have a strong affinity for Italy while Northern Europeans tend to be disdainful and snobbish toward Italy as a country and Italians as a people.

…By successfully courting Washington, Meloni pulled off a geopolitical coup. After the headaches inflicted by Macron and Scholz, Meloni’s drama-free and friendly posture came as a pleasant surprise for the Americans. For Meloni, it was the natural move to make. The Ukraine War and sanctions against Russia would not be concluded by carrying out a political kamikaze mission to undercut it, it would just result in a rapid removal from power. By accepting the reality of Italy’s position within the NATO security framework, Meloni has kept herself in the game. And by continuing to play the game, Meloni has the opportunity to gain for Italy a greater degree of sovereignty against EU centralization.

Plus, she knows the Brussels cabal can’t stand the Italians. Look what happened just last week – unspeakably rude.

…Last week, for example, President Emmanuel Macron of France excluded Ms. Meloni from a dinner in Paris with Mr. Zelensky of Ukraine and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, a clear sign that Italy had been knocked down a notch from when Mr. Draghi was in office. But analysts said Mr. Macron also wanted to avoid indirectly legitimizing France’s own right-wing firebrand, Marine Le Pen.

Ms. Meloni fumed, saying Italy sought more than “pats on the back,” and some interpreted her huddling in Brussels last week with leaders of the Czech Republic and Poland as a veiled warning. But on Friday, Ms. Meloni, a skillful politician well versed in the politics of victimization, spent a significant amount of time explaining that she did not care about not being invited to Paris.

…European officials have warned that a combative approach only risks diminishing Italy’s influence. And at home, liberals fear that Ms. Meloni is beginning to show her true, authoritarian face.

How she kept her temper – for a firebrand – I have no idea. And then to pile on, warning her like she’s some vassal state.

Is she an existential threat to Italy’s democracy yet? That’s the tell over here.

The NYT piece is so slimy in its insinuations – and in the related facts of the treatment dished out to Meloni by her peers. Good grief, they aren’t fit to hold her Armani coat for the sheer effrontery they showed a fellow head of state.

Elites – there they are, in full flower.

I vastly prefer Braddock’s breezy tweet.

Many RW politicians seeking power are like dogs chasing cars: they don’t know what to do with it if they catch it, other than nip at the tires.

Meloni is different. She’s like a Neapolitan woman on a Vespa dodging potholes and drunk Belgian tourists. https://t.co/qiol4w8uCv… https://t.co/EF2tVMOjfh

— Dr. Benjamin Braddock (@GraduatedBen) February 9, 2023

Reminds me of Florence.

If she can keep Italy’s endemic corruption at bay, I think she’s going to do fine.

I sure hope so.