Italy is set to have its first-ever female prime minister in Giorgia Meloni, but it's not a moment of happiness for American media outlets that normally celebrate glass ceiling breakthroughs.
Meloni, leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy political party, appeared on track to win Italy’s election Sunday, and Rai state broadcaster said Meloni's Brothers of Italy in alliance with two right-wing parties appeared headed to take as much as 45% of the vote in both chambers of Parliament.
But Meloni's triumph was overshadowed in American press reports by labels comparing her to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who led Italy into ruin in World War II because of his alliance with Nazi Germany. The press also criticized her socially conservative views on LGBT issues, criticism of the European Union and her coalition's generally anti-establishment views. Her party's win is part of a broader sweep of right-wing success and gains in Europe in recent years, in nations such as Sweden, France, Hungary and Poland.
A CNN piece with six bylines trumpeted, "Giorgia Meloni claims victory to become Italy’s most far-right prime minister since Mussolini."
The Associated Press published an explainer, "How a party of neo-fascist roots won big in Italy" following Meloni's triumph. Last week, with polls showing likely success for her party, an Atlantic article declared, "The Return of Fascism in Italy." It quoted Hillary Clinton noting the significance of Italy installing a prime minister who was a woman for the first time.
"Meloni would also represent continuity with Italy’s darkest episode: the interwar dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. As Clinton would surely concede, this is not such a good thing," Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote.
"Italy turned a page of European history on Sunday by electing a hard-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, whose long record of bashing the European Union, international bankers and migrants has sown concern about the nation’s reliability in the Western alliance," the New York Times reported.
Variety ("Giorgia Meloni Poised to Win Italy’s Election, Becoming Most Far-Right Prime Minister Since Benito Mussolini"), NBC News ("Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni set to become Italian prime minister"), Politico ("Italy on track to elect most right-wing government since Mussolini") and the Washington Post ("Italy election results set up first far-right government since Mussolini")fre hit the same vein.
"The archconservative of Italian politics, Meloni entered politics at age 15 in 1992, joining the neo-fascist Social Movement, a group with pronounced sympathy for Benito Mussolini, the country's dictator from 1925 to 1945. Fratelli d'Italia's party imagery evokes Italy's fascist past, but Meloni has rejected the associations, framing her proposed conservative coalition as a nationalist project that would recover power from Brussels," it reported.
Politico cautioned she should be taken seriously and not dismissed as a carnival sideshow, or a "mere Italian Trump."