The alliance dominated by the extreme right, favorite of the legislative elections on Sunday, held its only joint meeting in Rome, Thursday, September 22, at the end of a lightning campaign which could bring to power an ex-admirer of Mussolini.

So will Italy fall over?

Placed on financial infusion by its European partners after a devastating pandemic, it should put its destiny in the hands of Giorgia Meloni, head of Fratelli d'Italia (FdI), ultra-conservative, identity and nationalist formation.

"I vote for Meloni, she has never betrayed me, I share her opinions 100%, I find her consistent," Giuli Ruggeri, a 53-year-old unemployed woman who came to the People's Square meeting, told AFP. , right in the center of the Italian capital.

"La Meloni" as she is known in Italy, 45, has allied herself with the conservative Forza Italia (FI) party of declining billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, and the anti-migrant and populist League of Matteo Salvini.

The three leaders, on stage side by side for the first and last time in this campaign "under the umbrellas", followed one another to harangue their tens of thousands of supporters gathered for this final sprint.

It was a visibly diminished Berlusconi, struggling to walk alone, who spoke first, briefly: "Italy does not want to be governed by the left", asserted the octogenarian, denouncing "fiscal oppression" and the "uncontrolled invasion" of migrants.

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Matteo Salvini has set the coalition's goal of "governing well and together for five years", pledging to "protect Italy and the Italians".

He chained promises in a disjointed speech: blocking energy prices, ending the landing of migrants, abolishing the TV license fee... while attacking the "dictates" of Brussels.

"We are ready"

Finally, the real star of the meeting, Giorgia Meloni, whose supporters who dominated the audience chanted the first name, kept them spellbound with a river speech lasting more than half an hour.

"We are ready, you will see it on Sunday," she said, promising to defend Italy's "national interest" against Europe.

"We want a strong, serious and respected Italy on the international scene," she said, also committing to launch "a reform of Italian institutions" towards a presidential regime to guarantee "stability" in a country known precisely for its governmental instability.

Together, the right and the extreme right could obtain the absolute majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, with a comfortable lead over the Democratic Party (PD) of Enrico Letta, which failed to federate left and center.

According to the latest polls, Fratelli d'Italia is credited with 24 to 25% of voting intentions, ahead of the PD between 21 and 22%.

The 5 Star Movement (ex-antisystem) follows with 13 to 15%, the League at 12%, Forza Italia at 8%.

The right/extreme right coalition could thus win between 45% and 55% of the seats in Parliament.

The election is being closely watched in Brussels after the victory of a right-wing and far-right bloc in Sweden, as Giorgia Meloni could become the first female head of government of an EU founding country at the head of a post-fascist party.

Be careful, however, warns Marc Lazar, professor at Sciences Po and Luiss University in Rome, if the victory of the conservatives seems acquired, "the polls have been denied in the past".

A key factor in this election, the participation rate should drop to a historically low level, below 70%.

Conducted in the middle of summer when the Italians were at the beach, it was "one of the worst campaigns of the post-war period (...) There was no confrontation over the ideas and visions of each “, analyzes Flavio Chiapponi, from the University of Pavia.

The right wants more borders and less "bureaucratic" Europe, more birth rates and less immigration, more "Judeo-Christian" values ​​and less taxes.

"Italians first"

But everyone, in the campaign, wanted to recall their DNA, beyond the electoral agreement: if Meloni and Salvini castigate "Islamization" and undertake to put "Italians first", the first, protectionist, believes in the interventionist state when Salvini and Berlusconi, more liberal, argue for a flat tax of 15 and 23% respectively.

Coming from a political family that was built on anti-communism, Giorgia Meloni is also an Atlanticist and supports the sanctions against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, while Salvini, Vladimir Putin's great "tifoso", s opposes it, considering that they harm especially the Italians who pay the gas at the strong price.

On the left, Enrico Letta, he "campaigned exclusively on the defensive, as if he considered himself already beaten", judges Flavio Chiapponi, while Giorgia Meloni surveyed Italy from North to South as if she were already Prime Minister .

Enrico Letta presents himself as the guarantor of an Italy anchored in Europe, a strong argument after the EU granted nearly 200 billion euros in aid to Italy to revive its economy after the pandemic.

With AFP

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