Italy yesterday took a sharp turn to the right after Giorgia Meloni’s euroskeptic populist party swept to victory in general elections, putting the Taiwan-friendly politician on course to become the first female Italian prime minister.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, won 26 percent in Sunday’s election, according to partial results.
It leads a coalition set to win a majority in parliament and install the most right-wing government since World War II.
Photo: AFP
Her success represents a seismic change in Italy — a founding member of the EU and the eurozone’s third-largest economy — and for the EU.
“Meloni takes Italy,” read the headline in Repubblica, while editorialist Stefano Folli said that Italy “awakes this morning very changed.”
“It is the first time in decades that the country’s political face has transformed so completely. We don’t know yet whether its destiny in Europe has changed, too, but that is the first of many questions” now facing Italians, he said.
Meloni, who campaigned on a motto of “God, country and family,” is expected to become Italy’s first female prime minister, although the process of forming a new government could take weeks.
At a time of soaring inflation, a looming energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, the 45-year-old sought to reassure those worried about her lack of experience and radical past.
Meloni said voters had sent a “clear message” of support for her party to lead their right-wing coalition to power.
“If we are called to govern this nation we will do it for all Italians. We will do it with the aim of uniting people, of enhancing what unites them rather than what divides them,” she told reporters.
In a recent interview with Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Meloni said that she would reverse course on her nation’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan.
She voiced support for Taiwan and criticized China’s assertive actions across the globe, and their implications for Italy and the EU.
On the prospective relationship between Italy and Taiwan under her watch, Meloni said Taiwan would be “an essential concern for Italy.”
“We like to think of a new and more intense season of cooperation: cultural exchanges, tourism, prevention and management of health crises, scientific research and projects in the key sector of microchips, where Taiwan is a world leader,” she said.
Meloni’s coalition allies, Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, lagged behind her in the polls, but together they were forecast to win about 44 percent, enough to secure a majority in both houses of parliament.
Full results were not due until later yesterday, but the center-left Democratic Party, the coalition’s main rival, conceded, saying it was a “sad” day.
Turnout fell to a historic low of about 64 percent.
Congratulations came in quickly from her nationalist allies across the continent, from Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Spain’s far-right party Vox.
“Meloni has shown the way for a proud, free Europe of sovereign nations,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal wrote on Twitter.
However, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares said that “populist movements always grow, but it always ends in the same way — in catastrophe.”
Meloni no longer wants Italy to leave the eurozone, but says Rome must assert its interests more, and she has policies that look set to challenge Brussels on everything from public spending rules to mass migration.
Additional reporting by CNA
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS