Meloni celebrates that she is "no flash in the pan"

The post-fascist party of Italy's Prime Minister celebrates its annual party. It is both self-affirmation and opening up: guests include like-minded people as well as the British Prime Minister Sunak.

You have to hand it to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: she knows how to present herself as both confident and humble. At the celebration of her party "Fratelli d'Italia", the Brothers of Italy, she promised to bring Italy back to the highest ranks "with humility, diligence and love". She modulated her voice between aggressive and combative and soft and melodic. She repeatedly colored her sentences with a slight Roman dialect, her audience called her "ragazzi" in a chummy way.

In 1998, Meloni was one of the founders of the annual Atréju festival, a long-established gathering of right-wing radicals in Italy named after a character from the young adult novel "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende. The motto of this year's event was "Welcome back, Italian pride", which was probably also meant as a declaration of war. But against whom? The main target was the EU. They were not hostile to the EU, Rome was repeatedly told, but they would not be told what to do by Brussels. In Meloni's account, this attitude earned her respect. After initial skepticism, one or two people in Brussels said to her: "Welcome back, Italy."

The organizers explain why the event bears the name of a novel character by saying that Atréju represents a young person who fights daily against the forces of nothingness - against an enemy that consumes the imagination of young people, uses up their energy and robs them of values and ideals. From the point of view of the "Brothers of Italy", Atréju is therefore a role model for the younger generations.

Praise from Sunak, appearance from Musk

It was Meloni who initiated the event in 1998, at the time as the leader of a radical right-wing student organization associated with the post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale, the predecessor party of the Fratelli. The aim of the event was to promote the exchange of ideas, not only among like-minded people such as former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was a guest in 2018, but also with representatives from the other camp. In the past, politicians such as Matteo Renzi and Enrico Letta, former prime ministers and leaders of the Democratic Party (PD), have also accepted invitations. However, the current leader of the PD, Elly Schlein, declined. She explained that she could not share the stage "with nostalgics of the [Spanish] Franco regime and [Italian] fascism".

Elon Musk showed off one of his children.

The event offered Meloni the opportunity to take stock of her first year and at the same time set the course for the coming year. However, the audience was particularly excited about the three foreign guests: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US multi-billionaire Elon Musk. The names alone were a success for Meloni. It must have been particularly nice for Meloni that Sunak compared her to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, "who never hesitated, even when the fight got tough".

Three-way agreement between Meloni, Sunak and Rama?

All three made appearances on Saturday. Musk presented himself with one of his ten children on his shoulders and urged the Italians to ensure that there was a new generation, as otherwise the country risked being left without successors, just like the West as a whole. Sunak praised Meloni's agreement with Albania, which provides for the deportation of illegal migrants to Albania, which is ultimately a counterpart to the British Rwanda plan.

The catch with both plans is that the legal hurdles are high: In the UK, the plan was halted by the Supreme Court in November; in Albania, the Constitutional Court wants to review the agreement with Italy. The Albanian head of government, Rama, assured that this is not a problem; he is certain that it complies with the regulations. According to reports, a tripartite agreement between Meloni, Sunak and Rama is now being discussed, but no details were given.

At the end of the four-day meeting, Meloni welcomed Santiago Abascal, the leader of the radical right-wing Spanish party Vox. Abascal and Meloni have a particularly cordial relationship, which is why it was all the more surprising that Abascal's speech was extremely tame and moderate. He spoke of family, roots, values, of a difficult moment for Spain, by which he was perhaps referring more to the situation of his own party, which had suffered losses in the recent parliamentary elections in July and failed to achieve the desired change of government. He then went on to accuse the left of twisting the words of all dissenters and was gone again.

On migration, "the results are not as expected"

The closing words were reserved for Meloni, the "Lioness of Europe", as Georg Simion, leader of the Romanian nationalist party "Alliance for the Unification of Romanians", called her. She began by listing what she considers to be her successes: Despite a difficult economy, taxes had been lowered for low-income earners and more security had been provided. However, she also practiced self-criticism: "I know that the results are not as expected as far as migrants are concerned," she admitted humbly, but then immediately came up trumps again: "But we have to implement a paradigm shift." Until now, it had always been about redistribution. Italy had managed to ensure that the focus was now on how to secure the external borders. Meloni expressly thanked EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, "who described our agreement with Albania as 'thinking out of the box'". While the left has always defended the right to migrate, her government stands for the right not to have to migrate.

Meloni is obviously particularly proud of the fact that her government is stable. "Contrary to what many have assumed, we are not a flash in the pan." She is not a politician who sticks to her seat. But as long as the Italians are behind her, she will stay. Even if good governance is hard work. "But I'm not one to back down."

The polls currently say that she should stay. Her Fratelli d'Italia party is at 29%, 3 points higher than in the fall 2022 elections. Meloni herself is the most popular politician in the country, albeit with an approval rating of just 43.8%. However, this is not only due to her work, but above all to that of the center-left camp in Italy: its lack of direction continues to be the surest basis for Meloni's success.

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At the celebration of her party "Fratelli d'Italia", Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's praise, comparing her to the influential and resilient British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Furthermore, during her speech, she highlighted the significance of the agreement between Italy and Albania, a counterpart to the British Rwanda plan, which has also been praised by Rishi Sunak.

Source: www.ntv.de