“Meloni, Draghi, Conte, Gentiloni, Renzi, Berlusconi,” smiled a balding man in northern Naples, listing Italian prime ministers from the last decade or so. “Sono tutti uguali!”
Those words – “they’re all the same” – should have shocked me. Giorgia Meloni, who was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister while I was there in October, is on the far right. Her party, Brothers of Italy, is a direct descendent of Mussolini’s Fascists. She opposes LGBT rights, whips up anti-migrant sentiment and has worked to restrict abortion access.
