AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
Since Giorgia Meloni’s election as Prime Minister of Italy last year, the liberal establishment – both inside and outside of Italy – has been working overtime to slander and undermine the staunch conservative leader. Now, many on the left think they have found the perfect foil for Meloni in Elly Schlein, an ex-Barack Obama staffer whom some in the liberal press are calling “Italy’s AOC.”
In March, voters elected Schlein to lead Italy’s Democratic Party (PD) as its secretary. Particularly following Meloni’s victory last September, the PD has struggled to find its identity. From winning more than 12 million votes in Italy’s 2008 elections, the party won just 5.5 million last year.
Schlein has promised to change all that – but not without shaking up the status quo. She ran as an unapologetic leftist and in defiance of the party establishment, advocating a radical agenda on everything from abortion and assisted suicide to legalizing drugs and pushing radical gender theory.
These extreme positions clearly activated some disaffected left-wing voters in Italy – more than 500,000 people who were not PD members voted in the party primary.
Shlein has been something of a political nomad throughout her career. After starting her career as a PD party activist, she quit the party eight years ago, only returning in 2022. She also volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, where she trained other volunteers.
Like the U.S. President she once worked for, Schlein has become a media darling. She enjoyed a glowing Vogue profile late last month. The New York Times also has declared that Schlein has “catapulted Italy, which long seemed a Country for Old Men, into markedly different territory.”
As leader of the PD, Schlein will hope to use her party’s influence in strategically important regions of Italy – including populous cities like Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, and Bari – to expand the party’s influence. She also has a staunch ally in the European Parliament (EP), which leftists continue to dominate. Just last week, the EP criticized Meloni and other conservative leaders in Hungary and Poland for their supposedly “anti-LGBTQ” rhetoric.
But Schlein has her work cut out for her when it comes to making a case against the concrete successes of the Meloni administration.
Those fears are perhaps best captured by the term “Melonomics,” recently coined by conservative Italian newspaper Il Giornale to describe Meloni’s economic policies, which the paper likens to President Ronald Reagan’s. After six months in office, Meloni has established three pillars for growth: tax cuts and rules transparency, no government bailouts, and a merit-focused labor market.
In addition, Meloni’s immigration policy and treatment of African nations has also proved popular with voters and shaken the liberal establishment in Europe.
With many strategies similar to those employed by former U.S. President Donald Trump in the United States, Meloni has prioritized deterring illegal immigration, stressing that European policies of processing massive asylum claims and taking a lax approach toward illegal immigration have failed.
Meloni has also called on the rest of Europe to stop treating Africa as its “economic lifeline,” which she argues only exacerbates problems in African countries. “We need to strengthen relations with African countries, not with the eyes of a colonizer, but sitting on an equal footing,” Meloni explained early in her tenure. Those comments were a direct criticism of the French-led African Financial Community, which she called “a euphemism for Paris colonies.”
The blunt rhetoric and consistent attitude have worked wonders for Italy. In just a few months, Meloni has signed natural gas contracts with Libya and Algeria, allowing Italy to gain energy independence from Russian supplies by 2025 and transforming Italy into an energy hub for Europe. Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, and Algeria are now also actively working with Italian officials to decrease illegal immigration.
Meloni’s success has also seemingly invigorated other conservative parties in Europe. In Sweden and Finland, conservatives have campaigned on a similar platform as Meloni, emphasizing energy independence and cutting spending – two hallmarks of Melonomics. Meloni’s success has also motivated the Spanish conservative party, Vox, to challenge the immigration and debt records of the socialist government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
With little of substance to run on, the left in Italy has resorted to nasty personal attacks on Meloni and even her family. Recently, a daily newspaper associated with the PD published on its front page a cartoon mocking Meloni’s sister, who is passionate about protecting family and the freedom of religion. Meloni confirmed that the paper attacked “a person who does not hold public office, guilty above all of being my sister,” saying that the silence of those responsible was deafening.
The media both inside and outside of Italy have also baselessly continued to slander Meloni as a “racist” and a “fascist,” leveling the same attacks against her that so many Republican politicians experience in the United States.
Despite all this, however, Meloni has continued to perform well in the polls, and her government continues to deliver policy wins. It seems that Schlein will have to find a way to win the support of more than just far-left activists and the liberal media if she hopes to fulfill her ambitions.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
She is rational, courageous, humble, and authentic. These features of her character distinguished her as a natural leader.
Former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar said he did not witness so organized and determined a female politician in his career. He only read about such a woman. She was the U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Prime Minister Meloni has been an outstanding Conservative leader. She put Italy first.
Unifying the right-wing parties was her first achievement, which few leaders, except Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, could match.
Against the background of socialist Europe, her economic plan is Reaganite and Trumpian – these two in one.
He is the best thing to ever happen to Europe. I hope she has good security she’s going to prove that capitalism works and socialism does not. An extremely strong and intelligent leader
On day one of her governing, she trashed this leftist nonsense – minimum guaranteed income. Money for nothing, a significant expense, and exchanged into the assistance of loan insurance for small businesses. She is the most popular leader in the EU.
I hadn’t heard much about Meloni’s successes, so am glad to know. However, the leftist control freaks never seem to get the message that they’re not wanted. May the people prosper!
It is very good to know that Giorgia Melonia is doing what she is doing , with her defense of common sense outlook . She has courage. The United States of America could benefit by having more people with her good qualities here , in government, in business. I appreciate this article, it is important to know about developments in Europe, and other parts of the world that are presented without the left, liberal pollution of the facts . Bias news reports, that distort the truth, are not news, that sort of information is propaganda . You did great with this honest writing Ben Solis, Well Done !
Always get a kick out of the stupid people that call conservatives fascists , when what the liberals are doing is fascist. They are supposed to be so smart they don’t know what words mean. Another one is being called a Nazi when Nazis were the socialist party which is what the Democrats are now. Trolls try to prove me wrong.
Whoa! As an American, I’m liking her already. No matter what the country might be, conservative values always win. And the corollary is just as true, socialist governments always fail. The countries that continue to impose socialism on their people represent brute force authoritarianism.
Bullsh*t. The woman lied to get into office and rather than being “Trumpian”, she instead burdened her citizens with even heavier taxes to fund Zelensky’s Nazi church burners. How “Trumpian” does that crap sound to you?
AMAC, you should block that troll prochoicer.
Schlein is a destroyer, just like Obama and his hand puppet @pedopete Quid PRO Joe the communist whore.
Meloni is fantastic. She knows how to take on the Left. As a youth minister, she gained popularity among Italian families, and earlier as a councilor in Rome. She represents thoughtful Conservativism founded on the values of Western civilization. No wonder, with her Brothers of Italy, she attracted many Italians to Conservatism.
I was looking for news about her. I listened to her at CPAC in 2022. She is very eloquent and, as observed here, modest. With that by itself, she stands out in the pompous ruling class.
But I considered her an authentic American leader – she spoke about liberty and individualism as the foundation of all rights. Giorgia Meloni is Italian, of course, but this emphasis proved she has the mentality of the U.S. Founding Fathers, who stressed that every person is born free at a time when some of their contemporaries, like Calhoun, for instance, said the person needs to deserve freedom.
Unfortunately, American media do not report on Meloni because she has been successful.
What I like about her is an open-mindedness.
Her government reinvested in traditional, affordable energy, as this author said, in Africa. But she also made reasonable investments in infrastructure that will serve new sources, including solar. For decades, Italian firms have been involved in the design of new types of solar batteries.
But the previous Italian governments, like Biden, wanted to take a course inspired by the apocalypse. Her government, however, significantly rationalized this policy, lowering energy prices as the only EU leader. Meloni accepted energy from new sources, but since it is expensive, she provided cheaper options, increasing Italian business’s competitiveness.
I wish our Conservative politicians would learn something from her approach.
Meloni is consequently pro-family and pro-life. Her economic policy is considerate towards single mothers. It is what really matters. An article in one European newspaper said that the youth in Italy is starting to see a better future.
The war badly affected them, as Italian elites, while claiming fidelity to democratic values, made the country almost wholly dependent on Russian gas. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Italy’s situation was slightly better than Germany’s because the Conservatives did not allow gas supply cutting from Africa. But they recovered from this error step by step faster than the Germans. Now, she secured these new contracts winning the competition with France, which unnerved Paris.
She is a staunch defender of freedom, and her government is already planning for tax cuts sometime next year. Let freedom reigns. God bless her.
I join others in thanking Amac for this article.