MOVING TO FRONT FROM NOVEMBER 3--SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME
I've been in Rome over the last ten days (seminars and guest lectures, mostly at Roma Tre University, but also Rome Sapienza), where the weather has been remarkably mild (another "triumph" of global warming). Meloni had her vote of confidence in parliament while I was here, and is now Prime Minister. I've been talking to friends here about Meloni. One, who said without hesitation that Meloni is a fascist, thought the democratic system was robust enough to resist backsliding. She attributed the poor performance of the left parties to the fact that they spent all their time talking about "gay rights" and other social/cultural issues (my friend considers those issues important, just to be clear), and saying little about economic issues: inflation, electricity costs, and so on. Another friend pointed out that the President, who is a moderate, now has substantial power (a development of the last 20 years), and that will force Meloni to moderate her program accordingly. A general view was that Meloni was far preferable to the other major figure on the far right, Matteo Salvini, variously described as an "idiot," a "buffoon," "incompetent" and so on. Comments from Italian readers or those knowledgeable about Italian politics welcome.
