Right-wing victory in Italian election raises concerns across Europe

Judy Woodruff:

As we reported, Italians have chosen their first far right wing government since World War II.

Giorgia Meloni is expected to become the first female prime minister to lead Europe's third largest economy. Her party, Brothers of Italy, draws its roots from Italy's fascist history.

Today, she sounded a moderate tone, but, as Nick Schifrin reports, her recent rhetoric has many in Italy and wider Europe concerned.

Nick Schifrin:

In the birthplace of the Renaissance, today, Italians woke up to a new political era and a new untested leader whose message in victory was moderate.

Giorgia Meloni, Leader, Brothers of Italy (through translator): If we will be called to lead this country, we will do that for all. We will do that with the aim to unify these people, to underline what unifies it, rather than what divides it.

We on the right know exactly who we are and what we stand for.

Nick Schifrin:

But Giorgia Meloni is unabashedly nationalist and proudly populist.

Giorgia Meloni:

The sovereignty of our nation is under attack. The prosperity and well-being of our families is under attack. The education of our children is under attack.

Nick Schifrin:

She will lead Italy's farthest right coalition in 80 years, with firebrand Matteo Salvini, the former interior minister and leader of the Euroskeptic nationalist party League, and three-time former Prime Minister 85-year-old Silvio Berlusconi.

Meloni's rise has come quickly. As a girl, she was raised by a single mother and has long said she found a new family as a teenager in the neo-fascist Italian social movement. It was created by supporters of dictator Benito Mussolini. Its, logo, the flame, is part of Meloni's own logo today.

And almost exactly 100 years after Mussolini's march on Rome brought him to power, Italy's future leader once praised Mussolini on French TV.

Giorgia Meloni (through translator):

I think Mussolini was a good politician. Everything he did, he did it for Italy, and we can't find this and the politicians we have had for the past 50 years.

Nick Schifrin:

But, 25 years later, on the campaign trail, Meloni criticized Mussolini. And she vows to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as she told the Conservative Political Action Conference the day after the February invasion of Ukraine.

Giorgia Meloni:

We are on the side of freedom. And, indeed, we are on the side of a proud nation that is teaching the world what it means to fight for freedom.

Nick Schifrin:

But her coalition isn't convinced. Salvini used to wear Putin T-shirts and joked he would trade two Italian presidents for half of Putin. And Berlusconi has described Putin as a younger brother.

He recently walked back comments that Putin's war was about putting — quote — "good people in Kyiv," but he says he still wants to restore relations with Russia.

Silvio Berlusconi, Former Italian Prime Minister (through translator):

In terms of history, religion, culture, and lifestyle, Russia is absolutely a European state. I hope that this situation can change and that we can really create a Europe that would include all the truly European states.

Nick Schifrin:

But each of those coalition leaders actually lost votes to Meloni's Brothers of Italy.

Nathalie Tocci, Former E.U. Special Adviser:

The pro-Kremlin parties took a real beating, and Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni's party, and actually has been very firm in opposition to the Kremlin and in support of Ukraine.

Nick Schifrin:

Nathalie Tocci is an Italian political scientist and a former senior adviser to the European Union.

Nathalie Tocci:

She firmly believes in the notion of the West. As far as the sort of juxtaposition between the West and Russia in the context of the war, this is something that she actually really believes in. This is, in a sense, an identity point of the party which is actually quite firmly held.

Nick Schifrin:

But Meloni's domestic agenda is also firmly held, especially on immigration. She has called for a naval blockade against migrants and predicted a — quote — "Great Replacement" of native Italians.

Giorgia Meloni:

I see unbelievable things happening on the border between United States and Mexico. And I think of our own Sicily, thousands of migrants allowed to enter without permission, and, in many instances, engaging in crime.

Nick Schifrin:

And liberal activists worry about her eroding LGBTQ rights and access to abortion.

In the European Parliament, Meloni chairs a right-wing group of 44 parties. It includes Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party, which the E.U. has condemned for undermining the rule of law. It also includes Sweden's Democrats, an anti-immigrant party created out of a neo-Nazi group that just became the country's second largest party.

But Meloni's Euroskepticism will be constrained by the crises sparked by Ukraine, and she will work with the Biden administration, says Tocci.

Nathalie Tocci:

We are in an energy crisis. We are in an economic crisis. We are in a war. And so those are constraining factors to that Euroskepticism.

Nick Schifrin:

Why would she want to work with the Biden administration, or why does she feel she has to?

Nathalie Tocci:

It goes back to this question of kind of belonging to the West. You know, this is the family she belongs to.

She — these are the international relationships that she believes in. Meloni is very — not only is she very opposed to Russia. She is also very gung-ho about China. And the West — the sort of so-called leader of the West, is still, obviously, the United States. And so this is simply who she's going to be looking at moving forward.

Nick Schifrin:

The election featured historically low turnout, and it will take weeks before the coalition is set.

But Italians have chosen change, and will be led by the far right, and, for the first time, a woman.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.