Book Review | How Giorgia’s Vision Adds Up
Meloni has no hesitation in declaring that she stands for the right in politics as opposed to the left
It is unusual for an Indian publisher to bring to the Indian reader a book on Italian Prime Minister, translated from Italian into English. The probable reason that a book of a series of interviews by journalist Alessandro Sallusti with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is because the Indian media played up the bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ms Meloni. The other probable reason for showing interest in Ms Meloni’s politics could be the fact that both Mr Modi and Ms Meloni are right-wing politicians and Prime Ministers of their respective countries. Mr Modi would never confess publicly that he is a right-wing Prime Minister though he speaks of India’s traditions and civilisational inheritance.
Ms Meloni has no hesitation in declaring that she stands for the right in politics as opposed to the left. The right-left ideological rift in European politics is crystal clear, which everyone understands. In India, the tendency is for politicians of every stripe to say that they are pro-poor. Meloni has ideological clarity because the intellectual climate in Europe lends itself to such an articulation. It will indeed be a matter of speculation whether the Modi-Meloni friendship and rapport is based on personal equations, or whether it has something to do with ideology. It can be said that unconsciously, the Modi-Meloni bonhomie is based on undeclared ideological affinity on the part of Mr Modi and Ms Meloni’s acute awareness of Mr Modi’s right-wing ideological roots. The reason this book is in the Indian market is certainly due to the public friendship between the two Prime Ministers. The book, however, is not about Modi-Meloni friendship or about the ideological similarities of their worldviews. The book is about the political and ideological views of Meloni.
Meloni is an astute politician who understands that people in Italy, in Europe, and in the West, in general, are sympathetic to conservative views but not to far-right politics. The party she has founded and which she has led to power, Brothers of Italy, has all the marks of a fascist party. But she Meloni has been distancing herself from any kind of fascist association. Her inspiration is Margaret Thatcher and not the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Meloni hits out at the left pretty sharp and pretty hard. She ventures to explain the difference between “an environment on the Right and on the Left”: “…think of the New Yorker who becomes an environmentalist after work in the evenings by attending exhibitions or trendy events, yet scorns the Texan who lives on horseback, lasso in hand, surrounded by cattle.” This is political innuendo no doubt, but she scores her brownie point, And one can understand why she has managed to come so far in her political journey from a 15-year-old activist to the Prime Minister of Italy. Like many conservatives in Europe, she is very mindful of democracy and freedom. For her, these are non-negotiable, and it is the reason that she opposes Russia and Vladimir Putin and supports Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Giorgia’s Vision
Giorgia Meloni In conversation with Alessandro Sallusti
Rupa
pp. 210; Rs 695/-