On Sunday, Italy choose a new coalition for its Parliament, which is set headed up by Giorgia Meloni. Meloni is poised to become the first female prime minster of the country when the government is seated.
Her party, the Brothers of Italy, is also Italy’s farthest-right political party, an ultranationalist and populist movement that road a rising wave of right-wing fervor on the continent to a majority in parliament.
The party has been accused of being neo-fascist and has a direct lineage to Italy’s former fascist leader during World War 2, Benito Mussolini. Mussolini’s granddaughter and great-grandson ran for office under the banner of the Brothers of Italy. The coalition, when it forms, will be Italy’s most right-leaning government since the 1940s.
In the wake of the victory, an old speech Meloni gave in 2019 has the American right swooning over her and Italy’s nationalist victory.
In the clip, from a speech to the World Congress of Familes, Meloni hits the high points of current culture war strife, blasting those she says don’t support traditional national, religious, and gender identities, and who want their every whim to be a right, but live in a society with no responsibilities.
“Everything that defines us is now an enemy, so they attack national identity, they attack religious identity, they attack gender identity, they attack family identity. I can’t define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother, no. I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2. I must be a number, because when I am only a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators.”
The fiery speech is going viral online among conservative commentators, many of whom have fallen hard for Meloni, including Gamergate pundit Ian Miles Cheong.
“My God, this is it. This is the thing. @GiorgiaMeloni is the one we have been waiting for!” wrote one.
“Look at the way the champion speaks,” wrote Wayne Dupree.
“This is truly prophetic stuff. This isn’t merely political, it is apostolic. And quoting Chesterton at the end is magnificent. This woman better have airtight, and deathly loyal security,” wrote Steve Deace, host at the Blaze.
Meloni closed the speech with a quote from an English writer G.K. Chesterton, whom some have accused of being antisemitic, an undercurrent which runs through most neo-fascist and far-right movements.
Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shared the clip.
Several of the top posts on patriots.win, a pro-Donald Trump forum, were filled with similar praise for Meloni.
“Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Is A Firebrand,” wrote one sharing the speech. “The left believes we don’t want women in power,” someone responded. “No. We don’t want YOUR women in power. We want powerful women. Just like this.”
Another shared a different speech on hers on national conservatism. “Excellent, invokes Reagan and Trump. And watch her manner of delivery as well. Impressive.”
The love of a far-right European leader is nothing new for the far-right. For years, some have idolized Hungary’s Viktor Orban, a nationalist and hardliner on immigration. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), even had Orban headline its conference this year in Dallas.
Meloni might not be far behind.
