The Economist (20201212) by calibre

Author:calibre
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, pdf
Tags: news, The Economist
Publisher: calibre
Published: 2020-12-10T22:39:47.246000+00:00

* * *

This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/12/09/emmanuel-macron-unveils-a-controversial-bill-to-fight-islamism

Previous Articles Sections Next

Previous Articles Sections Next

Unchained Meloni

The Brothers of Italy are on a roll

Might they team up with the Northern League to form a government of the hard right?

Dec 12th 2020 | ROME

THE SCANDALS that demolished Italy’s post-war political order in the early 1990s brought a new generation into public life. Among them was Giorgia Meloni, who at the age of 15 chose to join the youth branch of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the direct heirs of the Fascist Party and its leader, Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy as a dictator until 1943.

Today Ms Meloni is riding high as a leader herself. Her party, the Brothers of Italy (FdI), has been the outstanding beneficiary of the covid-19 pandemic. Since late February, when it was already on a roll, the party has climbed steadily in the opinion polls from around 12% to more than 16%. It has overtaken the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, notionally the senior partner in Giuseppe Conte’s governing coalition. The FdI is “becoming firmly established as Italy’s third party”, says Antonio Noto of Noto Sondaggi, a polling firm. Nor is it unthinkable that it may soon become the second. Some recent soundings have put Ms Meloni’s party just four points behind the centre-left Democratic Party, also in the government. Mr Conte’s coalition looks increasingly fragile. It is split by a row over divvying out money from the EU’s covid-19 recovery fund. Were it to fall, an election might produce a hard-right coalition government consisting of the FdI and Matteo Salvini’s Northern League, which still leads in the opinion polls, with around 24%.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.