Italy: a populist breakthrough at the expense of women’s rights and the LGBTQIA+ community

(Original : french)

Written by: Julia Ricci

Translated by: Bertille Fitamant

On September 25th, the elections in Italy saw the rise to power, with nearly 43% of votes, of the far-right coalition^[1]Italie : ce que contient le programme de Giorgia Meloni, la leader d’extrême droite qui pourrait devenir Premi. (2022, 26 septembre). Franceinfo. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. It is made up of the party led by Giorgia Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), Matteo Salvini’s League, flirting with Eurosceptic tendencies, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, a conservative party. Obtaining an absolute majority of seats in both parliamentary chambers, the FdI is a political party with a neo-fascist heritage from the Second World War^[2]Afp, L. A. (2022, 26 septembre). Homophobe, ex-fan de Mussolini. . . Qui est Giorgia Meloni, gagnante des législatives en Italie ? L’Obs. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. Given its composition, Giorgia Meloni’s policy is focused on national interests, a pro-natalist policy defending a traditional family model and fighting “LGBTQIA+ lobbies^[3]Parisien, L. (2022, 26 septembre). Législatives en Italie : lutte contre l’islam et le « lobby LGBT » , défense des intérêts nationaux. . . ces thèmes chers à Giorgia Meloni. leparisien.fr. … Continue reading”. This populist turn taken by Italy questions the future of women’s rights, the LGBTQIA+ community and minorities. Based on populist rhetoric, this article analyzes the discriminatory effects of this policy on women’s rights and the LGBTQIA+ community by asking how does the election of Giorgia Meloni endanger these rights?

Femonationalism as an electoral tool

The pronatalist policy supported by Giorgia Meloni’s party puts forward a traditional family model, hence its slogan “God, nation, family^[4]Italie : ce que contient le programme de Giorgia Meloni, la leader d’extrême droite qui pourrait devenir Premi. (2022, 26 septembre). Franceinfo. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading”. On the one hand, it carries measures based on “support for the birth rate and family^[5]Ibid “, such as lowering taxes for a new child, increasing family aid, extending parental leave or yet the ease of access to daycare. On the other hand, Giorgia Meloni does not intend to change Law 194 on abortion, but rather to strengthen its prevention, that is to say protect the conscientious objection of doctors, which constitutes the first step towards its prohibition^[6]Tréca, A. (2022, 4 octobre). Italie : quid du droit à l’avortement après la victoire de Giorgia Meloni. RFI. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. In Italy, nearly “65% of gynecologists are conscientious objectors, and refuse to perform abortion in the name of their morality or their beliefs^[7]Bordecq, C. (2022b, septembre 27). En Italie, la victoire de Giorgia Meloni fait craindre un recul des droits des femmes et des minorités. RTBF. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading “. Consequently, the freedom of Italian women to freely dispose of their bodies is limited. With a regionally decentralized health system, this restriction therefore leads to a delay in the care of these women, forcing them to have abortions in other regions or abroad. These political demands for women’s rights are based on a “reappropriation of the feminist struggle and [its] instrumentalization for political purposes^[8]Athéna, E. (2018, 15 novembre). Femmes populistes : Entre instrumentalisation des stéréotypes et récupération politique. Le portail de référence pour l’espace de liberté, sécurité et … Continue reading”. This tendency, with an electoral goal, is called femonationalism. Femonationalism is introduced by Sara Farris, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths University in London, who defines it as the use by nationalist parties of gender equality by mobilizing feminist causes in order to defend a national identity, to legitimize an anti-migrant and anti-Islam agenda, and to broaden an electorate^[9]Diette, M. (2022, 15 janvier). Le fémonationalisme français ou la valorisation d’une identité nationale par des injonctions patriarcales. Institut du Genre en Géopolitique. Consulté le 12 … Continue reading.

Behind the will to protect, there is the will to exclude for racist and xenophobic ends^[10]Athéna, E. (2018, 15 novembre). Femmes populistes : Entre instrumentalisation des stéréotypes et récupération politique. Le portail de référence pour l’espace de liberté, sécurité et … Continue reading. A rape video was poster on Twitter by Giorgia Meloni, without the consent of the victim to emphasize on the asylum seeker status of the attacker. Denounced by the Democratic Party as instrumentalization of rape for political purposes, Giorgia Serughetti, researcher in political philosophy at the University of Milan-Bicocca, regrets that a real debate is not emerging on violence against women in a country where the number of women killed is increasing, from 108 between August 2020 and July 2021, to 125 between 2021 and 2022, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior^[11]Bordecq, C. (2022a, août 26). En Italie, l’extrême droite est accusée d’instrumentaliser un viol en vue des élections. RTBF. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading”.

A discourse against the LGBTQIA+ community, towards a polarization of Italian society?

The populist discourse disseminated in Italy seeks to reclaim feminist ideas to make them correspond to a patriarchal vision of women and the role of gender. By stigmatizing and elaborating a divide between “them” and “us”, the Italian populist party relies on scapegoats to maintain ethno-racial domination reinforcing supremacist and patriarchal visions^[12]De Castro Caldeirinha, C. (2022, 5 octobre). Le populisme et les femmes : quels dangers ? RTBF. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. This is also the case for the LGBTQIA + community, which suffers a homophobic commitment from Giorgia Meloni. The latter is radically opposed in her electoral program to “LGBT lobbies”, the marriage of homosexual couples and the adoption of children by these couples^[13]Italie : ce que contient le programme de Giorgia Meloni, la leader d’extrême droite qui pourrait devenir Premi. (2022, 26 septembre). Franceinfo. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. She claims that it is up to the State “to guarantee the best for children^[14]Afp, L. A. (2022, 26 septembre). Homophobe, ex-fan de Mussolini. . . Qui est Giorgia Meloni, gagnante des législatives en Italie ? L’Obs. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading”, in other words “a dad, a mom, stability^[15]Ibid”. It was during a meeting in Spain in front of activists from the far-right VOX party that she defended the church and its Catholic symbols by advocating “the central” and “spiritual” role of the ” natural family” in the face of the “LGBT lobby^[16]Parisien, L. (2022, 26 septembre). Législatives en Italie : lutte contre l’islam et le « lobby LGBT » , défense des intérêts nationaux. . . ces thèmes chers à Giorgia Meloni. leparisien.fr. … Continue reading”. She even declares: “Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology^[17]Ibid”. Although she claims not to be homophobic, her attachment to Christian and traditional values endangers the civil union law. The law does not focus on adoption, on the other hand, according to Giorgia Serughetti, measures could be added by the FdI party, limiting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people such as “the prohibition for municipalities to register homosexual couples as two parents of a child^[18]Bordecq, C. (2022b, septembre 27). En Italie, la victoire de Giorgia Meloni fait craindre un recul des droits des femmes et des minorités. RTBF. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading”.

This election highlights a climate of social and societal tensions, pre-existing in Italy since Matteo Salvini’s rise in the polls in 2018-2019. A resurgence of xenophobia and racist violence persists, worrying associations for the defense of civil rights. The repercussions on the LGBTQIA+ community are significant, such as the increase in attacks, crimes and hate speech, as reported by Alessia Crocini, president of the association Famiglie arcobaleno defending the cause of homoparental families^[19]Silini, A. (2022, 26 septembre). « Giorgia Meloni est une menace pour la communauté LGBTQI+ » . watson.ch/fr. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading. A concern that goes beyond borders, such as in France, where the political class wants to be “vigilant about respect for the values and rules of the rule of law^[20]Afp, L. F. A. (2022, 7 octobre). Italie : Paris se dit « vigilant sur l’État de droit » , Meloni outrée. LEFIGARO. Consulté le 12 octobre 2022, à l’adresse … Continue reading”. In response, Giorgia Meloni considers these remarks as “an unacceptable threat of interference against a sovereign state member of the European Union^[21]Ibid”.

Conclusion

These elections highlight the populist nature of Giorgia Meloni’s political program. Her speech uses femonationalist rhetoric to justify protecting the country’s national interests. Indeed, we see a desire to further regulate the right to abortion, already complicated to apply in Italy. Giorgia Meloni endangers the rule of law in Italy, fueling an unfavorable societal climate towards the LGBTQIA+ community, minorities and women. In fact, there is a need to be vigilant about the future of these human and civil rights. The rise of populism in Italy threatens these rights in favor of a nationalism echoing that of the inter-war period.

To quote this article: Julia Ricci, “Italie: une percée populiste au détriment des droits des femmes et de la communauté LGBTQIA+”, 14.10.2022, Gender in Geopolitics Institute

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