Meloni’s Election Win: Government For Everyone. But Not Every One.
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Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and representative of the right-wing alliance, secured 44% of the vote in the 2022 Italian General Election this September. Meloni claims the party will “govern for everyone” in Italy, outlined in a speech after the vote.
Soon to be the first female prime minister in Italian history, her right-wing rhetoric raises concerns about what this means for the future of Italy.
A Government for Women?
Meloni’s victory, at first, seems to promise an empowering breakthrough of gender norms in Italy’s political sphere. The right-wing parties’ strategic election campaign - of forming an alliance to uniformly push for a single candidate - is attributed to this success, and serves as a demonstration of her remarkable leadership qualities. However, the clear anti-choice stance of Meloni and her party calls into question whether she would stand as a leader for women in Italy.
In her own words, she aims to introduce :“The right to not have an abortion.”
While she intends to keep abortion-access laws intact, this attitude is hugely problematic.
Not only is she fundamentally mistaken in her belief that pro-choice is against carrying a pregnancy to term, this also means she will not prioritize the accessibility of vital healthcare, which will disproportionately affect women.
Women in Italy already face layers of challenges when terminating a pregnancy, despite their rights being protected by Law 194. Access to safe abortion is not universal. Italy’s health care is managed at a regional level, with some regions simply lacking adequate health care providers. The main issue, however, lies in the high rates of medical staff refusing to carry out the procedure.
Around 70% of medical professionals “conscientiously object” to providing abortion services. Accessing abortion, therefore, is practically impossible, even in large cities with good health care.
In spite of this, there are even more hoops to jump through after finding a proper facility and a doctor willing to proceed. The seven-day waiting period and the counseling session all try to convince the patient to withdraw their decision, which directly contradicts the patient’s right to bodily autonomy.
In this way, the right to health, a basic human right, is already something to fight for rather than being accepted at face value. This struggle will be made even more difficult under Meloni’s government.
A Government for Refugees?
Meloni’s stance on refugee settlement in Italy is inconsistent. Ukrainians, on one hand, are welcome to enter the nation. She deems them “real refugees” that are justifiably escaping Russia’s invasion, and therefore deserve to be fully supported by the Italian government. A naval blockade against North African refugees, on the other hand, is what she advocated for in her election campaign.
Why would these two groups of people, both fleeing from devastating wars, be different to Meloni?
The double standards she practices are rooted in her conservative Christian ideology. She welcomes migrants who are Christian, and those who are “compatible” with Italy’s “national community,” as outlined in her 2021 autobiography, I am Giorgia.
Meloni’s idea of a nation excludes certain groups of people based on where they come from. Not only does this echo the fascist rhetoric of Mussolini, a figure once idolized by Meloni, but it also has real consequences for the 27 million refugees across the world. This same concept also happens to decide who is worthy of help, in her eyes.
This is clearly an attitude of prejudice. It is not that Meloni thinks Italy’s borders should be closed to all refugees. She wants to be racially selective of those who enter the country to seek aid. She blatantly ignores their fundamental human rights not to be discriminated against on the grounds of national or social origin.
Meloni’s choice to violate the human rights of certain groups of people is telling. Not everyone, it seems, will be included in her government “for everyone.”
