The key to the success of Europe’s two big political families, Christian democrats and democratic socialists, has been their well-developed political and ethical cultures.
The Brothers
of Italy, which will most likely lead the country’s next coalition
government, now aspires to lay similar foundations for the right.
Italy might soon be led, for the first time in its postwar history, by a party with roots in the detritus of Mussolini’s Fascist movement. If the Fratelli d’Italia (“Brothers of Italy”) does end up at the helm of the governing coalition, as appears likely, European politics will be profoundly changed.
Giorgia Meloni, the FdI’s charismatic leader, has been accused of being a “
neo-fascist,” and both the FdI and its coalition’s second-largest member, Lega, have been labeled “
populists.”
Both labels miss the point. Yes, these parties have harnessed the
seething discontent some voters feel, and they would take a tough stance
on immigration and security. But the Brothers is hardly seeking to
upend liberal democracy.
The FdI’s ambitions lie elsewhere. Recognizing
that the key to the success of Europe’s two big political families,
Christian democrats and democratic socialists, has been their
well-developed political and ethical cultures, the Brothers is seeking
to lay similar foundations for the right, thereby enabling it to gain
and retain power well into the future.
This is the insidious challenge
that progressive thinking must confront. The FdI’s goals extend beyond Italy; the Brothers hopes to reshape European politics. Meloni also heads
the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, which includes dozens
of right-wing formations, including Poland’s Law and Justice, Spain’s
Vox, and the Sweden Democrats. On what pillars would the right’s new intellectual edifice stand?
In a recent interview,
Meloni expressed admiration for the late British philosopher Roger
Scruton, a conservative who was neither a fascist nor a populist, and
whose views – like those of Meloni – cannot be neatly categorized as
pro-state or pro-market. For both, the free market is a necessary
institution, but monopoly power needs to be limited by regulation. Nor
did Scruton fundamentally oppose the European Union. He believed that a
system of trans-European cooperation was necessary, but it should not
come at the cost of national sovereignty in all the areas that matter.
Likewise, an FdI-led coalition would not seek to exit the EU or the
eurozone. Rather, the Brothers envisions the EU as a loose confederation
of sovereign states, rather than an “ever-closer union,” with aspirations to become a semi-federal state. Nationalism and conservatism go hand in hand...
moere at Project Syndicate
© Project Syndicate
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