Jews should be more worried about Italy’s next prime minister

Giorgia Meloni has repudiated fascism and expressed support for Israel, but Jews should know better than to feel comfortable with her far-Right views.

Although Italy’s new prime minister will only be formally appointed in mid-October, it seems certain to be Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party.

Hers will be the most right-wing Italian government since Mussolini allied with Hitler in World War II.

The Italian Jewish community has been cautious in its response. Many Jewish leaders have declined to comment and some of those who have gone on the record have praised her repudiation of Nazism and her support of Jewish candidate Ester Mieli, who was elected as a Brothers of Italy parliamentarian at the September elections.

There is no evidence that Meloni subscribes to antisemitic views, and she is friendlier to Israel than many European leaders.

But it would be naïve for Jews to feel comfortable with a leader who comes out of Italy’s fascist tradition, leverages her Christian faith for political ends, and uses harsh rhetoric against Muslims and other migrants.

Jews are used to being the canary in the coal mine of political discourse, the first to feel rising tides of hate and oppression.

But in contemporary Europe it is often Muslims and Africans who are the first victims of populist xenophobia. The Holocaust made antisemitism too blatantly unacceptable for a populist push and waves of migration have delivered easier targets.

Many Jews have mixed feelings in response to these early signs. There is a certain relief that we are not being targeted. There is an instinct to keep our heads down, lest we are next.

There is also, in some quarters, a Jewish suspicion of Muslims, which makes us unwilling to stand in their corner. Aware that Israel and world Jewry are declared targets of Muslim extremists, many Jews are slow to see our community of interest with Muslim minorities in western countries.

All these factors make it difficult for Jews to recognise that the targeting of migrants, of Muslims, of any minority is bad for us and bad for society. A leader or party who is prepared to roll out xenophobic hate and build nationalistic chauvinism should never be welcomed by Jews, whether or not she directly attacks us. 

Meloni is a populist leader who uses fear of the outsider to amass support from the majority.

"No to the violence of Islam, yes to safer borders. No to mass immigration, yes to work for our people. No to major international finance!" she told a rally of the Spanish right-wing party Vox last June.

Significant attention has been paid to Meloni’s teen activism with the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), formed by supporters of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini after World War II.

At 19, campaigning for the far-Right National Alliance, she told French television that “Mussolini was a good politician, in that everything he did, he did for Italy.”

She has become smarter and more careful to separate herself from fascism, saying she “unambiguously condemns Nazism and communism”.

 “The Italian Right, consigned fascism to history decades ago, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and ignominious anti-Jewish laws,” she told an Israeli newspaper recently.

But she has never repudiated her youthful fascism and her fundamental attitudes have not shifted. She is an ally of Hungary’s far-Right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a critic of further European integration and a “family values” advocate who opposes abortion and ridicules LGBTQ+ issues.

Human Rights Watch has declared her potential government a “human rights challenge”, citing the party’s platform to remove asylum seekers and Meloni’s proposal to use a  naval blockade to push back boats carrying people fleeing persecution, rights abuses, and hardship, in breach of international refugee conventions. 

“Meloni has used anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially against those she insinuates do not "integrate better", sending a chilling message not just to immigrants, but also Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities,” declares Human Rights Watch.  

There is slippage in the language of Meloni’s party towards antisemitism. In 2019, a Brothers of Italy election manifesto referred to Jewish businessman George Soros as a “usurer”, recycling an antisemitic trope with a target popular among American antisemites.

But these rare examples are not what should have us most worried. The real problem is a fundamental attitude that privileges certain people – white, Christian, nativists – over minorities and newcomers. 

Pastor Niemöller famous quote works the other way, too.

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Jews may not be the first – or third – target this time but we cannot wait to speak out.

Photo: Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni arrives at the Sforzesco Castle in Milan this week  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno/ AAP)