Meloni Ascends
Benjamin Braddock
PM Giorgia Meloni Meets President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh MohamudItaly’s new prime minister has steered a shrewd course.
Since the fall of the Roman Empire, foreign influence has had a significant presence in Italian politics. Greeks, Barbarians, Normans, Spanish, French, Austrians, Germans, and Americans have all occupied or colonized Italian soil, and the Vatican has maintained a centuries long influence over Italian affairs as well. Italy’s political leaders have long recognized the practical necessity of forming advantageous alliances.
After Giorgia Meloni and her coalition partners came to power in the Italian elections last fall, some critics of reflexive Atlanticism expressed hope that her government would break with the antagonistic stance toward Russia espoused by the U.S.-led NATO alliance. These hopes were met with disappointment when Meloni made clear that Italy would retain strong support for Ukraine, as well as close ties and coordination with Washington and London.
Writer Christopher Caldwell has noted that the woke leftist ideas that Meloni opposes so strongly “come out of American academic culture, are imposed by American civil-rights law, and are promoted abroad by American military and economic might,” which makes Meloni’s support of Washington’s foreign policy agenda a contradiction. But ideological consistency is for political theorists and pundits. Meloni is neither a theorist nor a pundit but is the leader of a great nation in a time of peril. From the standpoint of realpolitik, her contradictions are simply common sense. A decisive break with Washington is simply not an option for Meloni, nor is it an option for any other Italian leader, due to how deep foreign influence runs in Italy’s political and economic institutions.
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https://americanmind.org/salvo/meloni-ascends/
