JNS
Is Italy’s Giorgia Meloni a friend or a foe of the Jews?
Jonathan Tobin
September 28, 2022

The latest parliamentary elections in Italy have sent many in the chattering classes in both Europe and the United States heading for their smelling salts. The victory of Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy Party means that the right-wing bloc is likely to lead the next government. Since the Brothers of Italy traces its origins to supporters of Benito Mussolini’s Fascists and postwar successor groups, the assumption on the part of many, if not most, commentators is that her success is part of a general trend in which democracy is being threatened by a new generation of authoritarians. In this way, Meloni is lumped together with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and former U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as, in some versions of this thesis, with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Italy’s Meloni portrays herself as strong supporter of Israel, rejects fascist past Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who is on track to become the country’s first far-right leader since Mussolini in World War II, has long tried to distance herself from her party’s fascist past and indicated she would be a strong supporter of Israel, even boasting of ties to the Likud party.