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Conservatives Win Big Again in Italy

Posted on Saturday, June 3, 2023
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by Ben Solis
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AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

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In total, the three main government parties that comprise Meloni’s coalition won control of nine of the 13 main towns and cities holding elections this year, representing roughly two-thirds of Italy’s population. “The Right wins everywhere – the Left only in Vicenza,” was the headline of the left-leaning daily publication La Republica.

The defeat of the center-left candidate in the Adriatic port city of Ancona was the crowning achievement on the night for conservatives, as it ended liberals’ 30-year rule over the city. For the first twenty years of that span, Ancona was ruled by an offshoot of the Italian Communist Party, signaling just how dramatic of a swing this year’s election represented.

The coalition also took the cities of Massa Marittima, Pisa, and Siena, long regarded as heavily liberal regions. “Strongholds of the left no longer exist,” Meloni declared following the results.

In voting for conservative candidates, Italian voters endorsed Meloni’s broad platform of cutting taxes, stopping illegal immigration, advancing energy independence, and funneling more resources to parents and families – all policies that will no doubt sound familiar to populist conservatives in the United States as well.

Meanwhile, Italian liberals, represented by the Democratic Party (DC), were left devastated, only managing to flip one conservative-held city while losing three of their own. The initial surge of energy felt after the DC elected Elly Schlein, a new, youthful leader, in February has now been all but erased.

In another ominous sign for the DC, the winning mayoral candidate in Vicenza, the only liberal flip, had asked Schlein not to campaign alongside him. “Things went bad for us. It was clearly a defeat,” Schlein said following the results.

Liberals had hoped that Schlein, an avowed progressive leftist who volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, would be able to unite a fractured liberal coalition and respond to Meloni’s stunning success last year. Instead, it appears Schlein has thus far only succeeded in further dividing the left and driving voters toward Meloni’s conservative coalition.

A major contributing factor to conservatives’ success was the unifying message of Meloni’s “Italy First” vision. After the elections, Rome’s daily Il Messagero newspaper declared, “Patria, the fatherland, is the voters’ focus.”

In an address celebrating the victory, Meloni emphasized, “We must not forget that our second mother is the homeland.” Her speech was in direct defiance of leftist rhetoric that has existed throughout Italy and the West for decades suggesting that patriotism and a “country first” mentality are products of fascist ideology that must be discarded.

For Meloni, patriotism is not only good, but a necessary foundation for national prosperity. “Only on the solidarity of those roots can a nation draw the strength, enthusiasm, and courage to be the protagonist of its time,” she declared.

Meloni further emphasized the importance of the nation as closely attached to patriotism. “The nation unites, not fragments, unlike race or a minority.” She then followed that statement up with actions, replacing the term “race” with the word “nation” in all public documents, according to a law approved by the new parliament.

Many of the candidates who prevailed this week embodied this mentality and have personal ties to Meloni. The victor in Ancona’s mayoral race is a middle-aged lawyer who has worked with Meloni since 2014 and been an active member of the Italian conservative movement. In Siena, the new mayor is a high school Italian and Latin teacher whom met Meloni last fall and developed an instant connection with.

Meloni herself has lived up to her “Italy First” mantra. In one stirring example late last month, Meloni departed the G-7 conference in Japan a day early to return to Italy after historic flooding devastated parts of the Emilia-Romagna region, killing 14 people and causing billions in damage.

In all, more than 35,000 people were forced to evacuate. But as they slowly began to pick up the pieces of their broken homes and livelihoods, Meloni arrived to raise morale and make clear to the people that she had not forgotten them, even amid one of the most pivotal international summits. She promised to meet with her cabinet as soon as possible to deliver immediate relief.

For hours, Meloni walked through muddied houses and surveyed farms that were drowned in several feet of water. In one particularly moving image, she placed her hands on the face of an elderly flood victim and assured him that her government would be there to assist him and all who had been affected by the disaster.

Italians are clearly responding to Meloni’s hands-on leadership and unapologetic defense of Italian interests. If this past week’s results are any indication, Italy – and perhaps other countries in Europe as well – could be in the beginning stages of a great conservative resurgence.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.

 

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joe mchugh
joe mchugh
1 year ago

As an American, I know that many Europeans look down on Americans as being pedestrian and provincial, but we prize individual freedom above all else. We regard the government as being a necessary evil, not a nanny to hold our hands from cradle to the grave. We expect all who are healthy and who have at least average intelligence, to earn their own way. A government has no money of its own, it can only take from those who are willing to work, and give to those who would not.
If I were an Italian citizen, I would absolutely vote to keep Giorgia Meloni in power. That she has prevailed with her conservative beliefs is a hopeful sign that at least some Europeans are looking for a more rewarding sense of liberty. A liberal government and a liberal people are like two drunks trying to hold each other up. What drove the American economy into being the behemoth that it is was a free industrial base powered by the engine of capitalism. For any foreigner who regards capitalism as being a four letter word, I suggest that you continue to wallow in an economy constrained by socialism.
A large society needs the medium of value called money. No matter what political theory a government operates under, money is the key factor. The government that exacts additional taxes to pay for “assistance” programs always constrains the economy of that society. Early in our American history a touring Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville observed that “The American Republic will edure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” ALL of our politics now revolves around this very warning. We are locked in a conflict between socialism and conservatism.
There is nothing chiseled in stone that the American Revolution would be the last revolution. Although our Democrat Party and its apparatchics work to disarm the people, our Second Amendment to the American Constitution was provided by our Founding Fathers for the very purpose of enabling the people to resist a government that might abuse their inherent rights as human beings. The Liberal Democrats don’t really care about the criminal element, they fear the law-abiding citizens who have enforced their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. All would-be authoritarians understand that you cannot abuse the rights of an armed people.

Rob citizenship
Rob citizenship
1 year ago

The good qualities of Giorgia Meloni her patriotism, her intelligence, her courage, her enthusiastic outlook — this is the sort of stuff — call it the stuff of good character — that will hopefully catch on in many other places that need Conservative strength , courage and wisdom, including here in the United States of America. She has the right spirit and it is very encouraging that her plans are developing successfully. This is great news, genuinely optimistic thoughts to build on ,to provide stability and a sense of purpose for everyone who cares about having a better world to live in , with respect for the things that matter — like truth and liberty and the ideals of Faith, Family and Freedom.

PapaGrouch
PapaGrouch
1 year ago

Georgina Meloni is an incredible and fantastic leader. And she has the perfect blueprint of how NOT to run a country: the Biden administration. Whatever Biden’s admin does, Meloni just does the opposite and Italy clearly wins. Can America not feel the earth moving under our feet yet? Sadly, no…

tommyboy
tommyboy
1 year ago

Now can we get this done in the USA ?

Governor Tim Walz giving a speech at a Podium in September 2024
Fema.gov Disasters USA Government home page under magnifying glass.
Medicaid text sign on calculator with pills and money. Medicaid text calculatoron American paper money with pills and orange prescription bottle

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