Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an "immediate" summit between the US, EU, and Western allies to discuss Ukraine following a heated White House meeting between Trump and President Zelenskyy.
The February 28 meeting ended without agreement on a minerals deal after escalating into a confrontation over US aid and peace deal conditions.
Meloni warned that Western division "makes us all weaker" as European leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented that "the free world needs a new leader," while European allies worry about being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war.
I understand that Meloni is struggling with cognitive dissonance here because she loves Trump and the American far right but also recognizes Russia as the obvious enemy to Europe that they are (and thereby making Ukraine our natural ally).
But the time for courting is over. America has become a hostile nation and they might actually be our enemy soon.
Increase European integration and federalization. Increase defense spending and fund a European MIC. Organize into a joint European army. This and only this can be our way forward or we will be crushed between two fascist superpowers.
Meloni and her government do not perceive Putin as an enemy AT ALL.
One of the most prominent members of her government even said Putin should receive a Nobel Peace prize.
Meloni and Orban are just fascists, in the case of Meloni even belonging to the excised appendix of a literal Fascist party.
I couldn't agree more. I'm an outsider to Europe, unfortunately, and find myself as a Canadian increasingly seeing America in much the way Ukraine must have felt about Russia in 2010. Europe is the last hope for democracy and the rule of law in the world right now.
It's actually worse. I think Meloni is not in the game for power or wealth (at least, not mainly), she is someone who is in for her ideas. The problem is that her ideas are shitty neofascism.
fascism had no ideas neither, their ideas were shifted constantly to whatever suited them best. This person hanged to fascism to get votes and distanced from it once elected to keep votes.
No, I think they had ideas. In Italy at least the ideological pillars were quite clear and are the same as they were 100 years ago.
Support to industrial class (capital) was a constant and still is. Militarism, religion in politics, nationalism, racial discrimination, anticommunism etc. also.
In general I agree that fascism is not an ideology as much as a way to conduct politics. But Italian fascists did not evolve or change in the last century. Maybe we can discuss how nationalism became atlantism (because anticommunism prevailed), but apart from that, I see quite a lot of stability in those ideas.
No, I think they had ideas. In Italy at least the ideological pillars were quite clear and are the same as they were 100 years ago. Support to industrial class (capital) was a constant and still is. Militarism, religion in politics, nationalism, racial discrimination, anticommunism etc. also.
I am aware of my own country's history. Socialist roots of Mussolini contributed to the ideological foundation of fascism, and some of these roots are somewhat visible and remained until today in neofascist parties. For example, looking at how Forza Nuova and Casapound have deep roots in more proletarian suburbs and operated things like food delivery to poor people (only Italians, of course). The appeal to lower class while ultimately making the interests of capital is one of the reasons fascism is a hard disease to get rid of in Italy.
Not sure what you meant with the second link. The chapter of mixing religion and state is a very long discussion, and the racial discrimination is so obvious that I won't even try to argue it (from colonialism, to folks songs like "faccetta nera", to the practice of madamato).
In any case, the fascist tradition in Italy has been stable. Meloni is from Almirante's school, for example, and honestly I would be hard pressed to find substantial differences in core pillars of Almirante's party and Fratelli d'Italia.
Do you have any concrete example perhaps of areas in which fascist parties in Italy changed positions substantially over the years?
"Prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she was in favour of better relations with Russia and supported lifting sanctions on the Russian Federation in 2014. In 2018, she congratulated Vladimir Putin for his re-election as president. In 2021, she wrote that Russia under Putin defends European values and Christian identity."
A specific alliance is not an ideological change. She was allied of Russia until that was functional to pushing her own values (racism, anti-lgbtq, anti-muslim, christianity etc.), and didn't conflict with atlantism. Now that it does, things changed. If anything this is an argument in favour of my thesis.
You are talking about research as if this was not known to anybody.
You need to explain how this change in relationship with Russia is an ideological change. She also changed coalitions and historically she changed relationship with Lega and before that with Forza Italia. That doesn't prove that her ideology changed.
Again, give a concrete example.
Edit: some examples in case you think I am asking an impossible task:
D'alema. Or in general PCI to Ulivo to PD. Completely different politics.
Legs. Consistent until Bossi lead it. Salvini (who started as a communist lol) exploited the opportunity and completely transformed the core politics (no more Padania, nationalism instead).
M5S, hopefully no need to even say it.
FDI instead is exactly the inheritance of MSI, following the same politics. Meloni herself considered Almirante the father of the right wing. That's the core. And presenting it as opportunistic is underestimating it. Salvini is opportunistic. He is a fascist when is useful, he is a politics whore, will change in a blink of an eye. Meloni is not. She has her shitty ideas since she was a teenager militant, and those will stay the same.
Sure, depending on what is happening she might be anti-EU or more filo-EU, but that's because those positions (like in the case of Russia) are subordinated to the core values of her (party).
Same in Slovenia when it comes to far right. They were drooling over Trump (our PM at the time even congratulated Trump on winning 2020 elections before the official results) and also painted themselves as biggest Ukraine supporters. Now I'm not sure where they stand and how they rationalize the situation, since I'm off X and Facebook.