World News: Italy Shifts Right and Not Unexpectedly

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 26 September 2022 19:28

Written by Olivier Longhi

The recent victory for Italy's right-wing leader, Giorgia Meloni, is sending a strong signal to the European Union by paving the way for a far-right government and questioning the limits of democracy in a world in turmoil.

Whether or not it falls mainly into the camp of the extreme right, Italy gives a strong and worrying signal on the state of its opinion and more broadly on that of the opinion of many Europeans. The global rise   of extremist discourse questions the libertarian and democratic principles that have long supported our societies.

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The essential question today is simple: does democracy meet the aspirations and needs of all? Some will argue that yes when others shout the contraire seeing in the latter the origin of all evils. It is therefore not forbidden from now on to look at the drivers that push voters to turn to far-right currents and parties.

With his conservative speeches, making the apanage of a glorious past, even of a historical nostalgia that never existed, the parties of the extreme right agitate the Red rag of a form of security that he wants, according to them, only to restore by putting them in power.

Ease of Speech

The exacerbation of political and geopolitical tensions in recent years combined with a feeling, real or supposed, of   social downgrading also work to push voters   lacking political culture to let themselves be  seized. dire by parties with rhetoric that many  have long described as limited, but which ultimately proves to be sufficiently constructed for an electorate not fond of complex debates and explanations that would be just as much.

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The ease of the discourse of the far-right   currents and the  equally pithy reflection to which they invite satisfy   an electorate in need of recognition, drowned in the throes of globalization   and   victims of the vagaries of an economy which goes beyond their own sphere. The fear of seeing the  collapse of a   narrow-minded and reassuring universe, hierarchical for decades, or even more, contribute to this flight forward that   delights some   parties with   already low intellectual demands.

If some far-right   figures are outraged by the   intellectual poverty that these parties present, it is above all to give the parties in question a certain legitimacy and   credibility capable of integrating them  into the political chessboard in which they seek to impose themselves. The typical example is still the Italian Giorgia Meloni of the Fratelli d'Italia party  or in France, Jordan Bardella for the National Rally. Both defend an aggressive conservatism which in reality hides fundamentally regressive and anti-democratic theses. But their electorate does not care.  

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Why ?  Because through   noisy, eloquent, and provocative   speeches, the electorate in question nourishes the feeling of having a voice that represents them  to be the voice of their difficulties. But the gap between   expressed expectations and political ambitions based on these aspirations, for the time being impossible to measure, will be all the  more glaring when the far-right comes to power.    

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From then on, the udo-social and economic vocation  that underlies his action and which legitimizes his speech will shatter to see a growing lot of disappointed. But the damage will be done.      

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.