If you believe what the main Western media write about this Sunday's elections in Italy, you might get the impression that Benito Mussolini himself rose from the grave there.
As soon as they do not name the main winner of these elections, George Meloni: both the ultra-right, and the heiress of the fascists, and the radical troublemaker.
The German magazine Stern featured Meloni's photograph on its front page under the headline "Europe's Most Dangerous Woman".
Fear has big eyes: in fact, 45-year-old Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party and in the near future the first woman prime minister of the Italian Republic, is a normal conservative politician.
About 20 years ago there were quite a few of these in Europe, and they didn’t particularly frighten anyone.
But now times are different, and anyone who deviates even an inch from the reinforced concrete "party line" - green energy, the fight against global warming, critical racial theory, the protection of LGBT rights (by the way, now the "league of sexual minorities" requires to call themselves LGBTQIA2S + - do not ask how it stands for), aggressive Russophobia, support for Nazi Ukraine, etc., etc., can be declared a fascist.
George Meloni grew up in an incomplete family (her father fled to the Canary Islands when she was 11) and never belonged to the country's elite.
This brings her closer to ordinary voters - those who are forced to get into credit bondage to pay for the education of their children, or freeze in winter because of the inability to pay heating bills.
At the age of 15, she joined the Youth Front - the youth wing of the party.
"Italian social movement", which is often called neo-fascist.
This is still blamed on her, although in 1992 the ISD already said goodbye to the followers of Mussolini - they loudly slammed the door and founded their own party, Fascism and Freedom.
But who among the critics who now call Meloni a fascist cares about such boring historical details?
Georgie Meloni's main "crime" against the liberal international is that she consistently defends traditional values: family, religion, fatherland.
Back in 2019, speaking at the World Congress of Families in Verona, she struck the audience with unprecedented frankness, attacking those behind the scenes of the war against traditional values:
“Why is family an enemy to them?
What's so frightening about her?
There is only one answer to this question: because this is what defines us and our essence.
And now everything that makes up our essence is turning into an enemy for those who want to deprive us of it and turn us into impeccable consumer slaves.
That is why they attack our national, religious and gender identity, our family values.
I cannot consider myself Italian, Christian, woman and mother.
Not!
I am citizen X of gender X, parent #1 or parent #2.
They want to make me just a number, because in this case I lose both my essence and roots.
I become a slave at the behest of financial speculators.
Flawless consumer!
Her position horrified the European media, but resonated with ordinary Italians.
“I am Georgie, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian,” Meloni repeated at rallies.
“No one can take that away from me.”
Inventive DJs in Rome included these words in a remix of the famous dance hit, and Giorgi's popularity among Italian youth skyrocketed.
When in 2021 a certain university professor from Siena insulted Meloni by suggesting that she had never opened a single book in her life and calling her a "cow" and a "pig", it caused a national scandal.
Both Italian President Sergio Mattarella and then Prime Minister Mario Draghi personally called Meloni to express their support for her, and the boorish professor was suspended from teaching for three months.
And here is the result: if in the 2018 elections, the Brothers of Italy party led by Meloni received only 4.4% of the vote, then last Sunday 26% of voters voted for it - more than for any other party in the country.
There could be even more, but a hefty piece of support from Meloni and her "Brothers" was snatched off in the south of the country by the Five Star Movement - more left-wing populist than conservative, but, in any case, also not related to systemic parties.
However, “Five Stars” is generally a dark horse of these elections: the Democrats, led by Enrico Letta, really wanted to put together an alliance with them, and if this worked out, then the right and left would divide the parliament almost in half.
But it didn't.
As a result, the Democrats have 19%, the Five Stars have 15.4%, but these are two different detachments, and not a single powerful fist.
But the right rallied.
The head of the "League" Matteo Salvini and the legend of Italian politics Silvio Berlusconi ("Forward, Italy!") entered into an alliance with Meloni.
Their results individually are not very impressive - 8.7% and 8.1%, respectively - but the three of them get nearly 44%.
237 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (where only 400 seats remained after the recent reform) and 115 in the Senate - a confident majority.
And this means that the first truly right-wing government will be formed in Italy.
Previously, coalitions with a predominance of the right have formed more than once in the country (for example, the “Pole of Freedoms” led by Silvio Berlusconi, who also won 43% of the vote in 1994), but centrists were always present there - usually Christian Democrats or Social Democrats.
The new alliance of the Brethren, League and Fort Italia parties, although called the Centro Destra, is represented only by the Conservatives.
And this makes the liberal international seriously nervous.
There are three reasons for concern: the already mentioned struggle for traditional values, a tough immigration policy and a possible softening of Rome's position towards Russia.
The latter, apparently, is the most terrible thing for the liberal international.
“Both of her (Meloni) allies had close ties to Russia.
Berlusconi, 85, said last week that Vladimir Putin was pushed to invade Ukraine, and Salvini questioned Western sanctions on Moscow.
And Newsweek magazine went on a rampage with a long article titled "Giorgi Meloni's victory in Italy is the best scenario for Putin."
The potential withdrawal of Rome from anti-Russian sanctions is a nightmare of the “global West”.
“If she (Meloni) does this, there are fears that Italy could become a weak link that will break the strong united EU position towards Russia,” warns The New York Times.
Are these fears justified?
And can we seriously expect that the Meloni government will really go against Brussels?
On the one hand, Meloni is known in Italy as an implacable oppositionist, who constantly opposed any initiatives of the Draghi government from the budget to universal vaccination against coronavirus.
But there was one point on which she stood in solidarity with Draghi and the liberal international who stood behind him - support for Ukraine.
“On the issue of Ukraine (perhaps the most important for the government), she unequivocally criticized Russia’s unjustified aggression, loudly supported Ukraine’s right to self-defense, and in a recent interview said she intends to fully continue the supply of Italian weapons to Kyiv,” writes The New York Times columnist. Jason Horowitz in an article under the eloquent title "Meloni's victory will be the first test of Italy's resolve towards Russia."
However, Meloni's partners in Centro Destra "deeply admire Vladimir Putin and criticize the sanctions against Russia," Horowitz sounds the alarm.
This split and bitter rivalry among right-wing leaders could prove fatal to the new coalition - in Italy, known for its periods of political turbulence, less serious disagreements have also led to the fall of governments.
Political mastodons, stewed in this Italian broth for decades, take such conflicts for granted, but Meloni has just tasted victory, and it can intoxicate her.
This means that once in power, it may “be tempted to soften support for sanctions that are unpopular in much of Italy.”
So, in passing, an American columnist reveals an open secret: the vast majority of Italians, in one form or another, oppose the anti-Russian policy of Brussels, which significantly hits the pockets of the Europeans themselves.
It is this, and not the intrigues of Moscow or the machinations of "Russian hackers" that explains the victory of the right-wing conservatives in the elections.
American conservatives, on the contrary, are celebrating their victory: it is not for nothing that former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon traveled around Europe for several years, establishing links between right-wing movements there.
“The party leaders in this conservative coalition are Euroskeptics, if not outright Italeavers, the Italian version of Brexiteers,” Breitbart News said.
“And even the relatively centre-right Berlusconi has hardened his stance on the EU after what he believes senior officials conspired to get him removed as prime minister in 2011 — and succeeded.”
Italy's exit from the EU should not be expected, but relations between Rome and Brussels will undoubtedly deteriorate after the right-wing coalition comes to power.
In fact, this process has already begun: on the eve of the elections, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Brussels has the tools to “discipline” the troublemaker country in case things “go in a difficult direction” in Italy, as in Hungary and Poland.
This caused a real political earthquake.
In several Italian cities, angry activists tore EU blue flags from administrative buildings.
The leader of the "League" Matteo Salvini demanded that the insolent European bureaucrat resign or at least apologize to the Italians.
Before they came to power, the Centro Destra coalition was already on the warpath with Brussels.
However, these are still flowers - berries are ahead.
The new government intends to pursue a policy that runs counter to the course of Brussels.
The right-wing promises to lower the sales tax on energy, which, in anticipation of the winter cold, cannot but please the Italians, but in the face of the rejection of cheap Russian gas, it looks like a utopia.
They want to lift the ban on the development of nuclear energy (groans of greens are heard).
The coalition has plans to boost Italy's birth rate by increasing benefits for families with children.
And they - oh horror!
- are aimed at combating illegal immigration and stricter control over the flow of legal migrants.
Even if the new government does not dare to raise an open rebellion against the yoke of the Brussels Eurobureaucrats, it may join Hungary, the main troublemaker in the EU, on a number of important issues.
It is no coincidence that one of the first to congratulate Meloni on his victory was the political director of the Hungarian Prime Minister and his namesake Balazs Orban.
“In these difficult times, more than ever, we need friends who share a common vision and approach to the problems of Europe.
May the Hungarian-Italian friendship last long,” he wrote.
Let me remind you that most recently Viktor Orban was the guest of honor at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas, where he strengthened ties with the Republican Party and especially the Trumpists.
In Italy, the slogan MIGA - Make Italy Great Again, is gaining more and more popularity, a tracing paper from the Trumpist MAGA.
The key factor here should be the victory of the Republicans in the US midterm elections in November - in this case, it will be possible to talk about a new right-wing conservative bloc capable of resisting the left-liberal international.
The positions of the right-wing government of Meloni-Salvini-Berlusconi will be significantly strengthened, and the space for political maneuver will be significantly expanded.
Unless, of course, the coalition falls apart before November - in Italy, to paraphrase Belinsky, governments are growing like mushrooms.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.