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The Brothers of Italy, which will most likely lead the country’s next coalition government, now aspires to lay similar foundations for the right.
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
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.