Meloni’s
Balancing Act: Centrist Abroad, Right Wing at Home
New policies
on surrogate births and the treatment of asylum seekers, while largely
symbolic, are designed to shore up her right-wing flank in Italy, analysts say.
Emma Bubola
By Emma
Bubola
Reporting
from Rome
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/world/europe/meloni-surrogacy-migrants-italy.html
Oct. 17,
2024
Updated 1:27
p.m. ET
Giorgia
Meloni has done much in her two years as Italy’s prime minister to distance
herself from her hard-right past, aligning with the Western mainstream on key
international issues. But this week, she issued strong reminders of her
conservative beliefs.
On
Wednesday, the country’s senate broadened an existing ban on surrogacy, making
it illegal for Italians to seek surrogate births abroad. That was just a few
hours after the Italian Navy took the first migrants to Albania as part of
Italy’s new plan to process asylum claims outside the country.
Those
policies, touching upon the right’s flagship themes of migration and family
values, were powerful, symbolic gestures.
“She doesn’t
want to do far-right,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political scientist at Luiss
Guido Carli University in Rome. “But she needs to offer a sop to her base.”
Mr.
D’Alimonte added that Ms. Meloni was “walking a tightrope” by holding positions
that made her a credible partner on the international stage while holding onto
her right-wing base.
“It’s a
balancing act,” he said.
Ms. Meloni
has not only moved on from her past, but has gone further, taking steps to
distance herself from much of the European far right, casting herself as a
bridge between the mainstream center and nationalist parties that are often
viewed as unpalatable, such as Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in
Hungary.
Despite
having expressed support for President Vladimir V. Putin in the past, Ms.
Meloni has taken staunchly pro-Ukraine, pro-NATO positions on the Russian
invasion, closer to those of President Biden than of former President Donald J.
Trump, who would seem to be a more natural ally.
When Mr.
Orban this summer founded Patriots for Europe, a coalition of nationalist
parties, Ms. Meloni spurned it. At home, she decided not to establish the naval
blockade that she had promised while campaigning would stop migrants, and her
government just proposed a rigorous budget, keeping a tight rein on spending.
Where she
has sought to assert her conservative credentials is on issues that experts say
have a lower risk of undermining her reputation abroad.
Ms. Meloni
has sought to reinforce those credentials with largely symbolic actions, like
flouting political correctness. In a language with both a feminine and a
masculine word for president, she prefers to use the masculine one. She also
refers to Italy in nationalist terms, like “homeland.”
She
emphasizes that having a “father and a mother” is what is best for children,
and her government has taken steps to make it harder for same-sex couples to be
recognized as parents.
She promised
not to overturn Italy’s abortion law, which allows procedures within the first
12 weeks of pregnancy. But she tinkered with it, emphasizing abortion
“prevention” in legislation and vowing to do whatever she can “to help a woman
who thinks abortion is the only way.”
The law
criminalizing surrogacy abroad, which will affect a small number of people and
is likely to face legal challenges, was a clear step in this direction. By
closing off virtually all avenues for gay fathers to have children, the new law
was broadly seen as a crackdown on L.G.B.T. families — another move likely to
please her right-wing base.
While
supporters of Ms. Meloni’s party largely support the measure, it is also backed
by some feminists who are concerned about the potential exploitation of women,
and Roman Catholics, making it much less divisive than it might be in other
countries.
“This is the
strength of this law from an electoral perspective,” said Christian Rocca,
editor of the Italian news website Linkiesta.it. “To make a bombastic
declaration that has very little real effect.”
The law has
been a blow to parents who made use of surrogacy or intended to seek surrogate
births abroad. And some have criticized it as homophobic, with children already
born from surrogacy abroad who would now be seen by some as the product of a
crime.
But experts
said these families represented a relatively small pocket of voters.
“It’s
dog-whistle politics,” said Mr. Rocca.
Human rights
groups say much the same is true of the new migrant policy of sending asylum
seekers rescued in the Mediterranean to Albania.
The model
resembles a previous attempt by the conservative government in Britain to send
asylum seekers apprehended crossing the English Channel to Rwanda, and is part
of the Italian government’s multifaceted efforts to stop illegal immigration.
The plan has
been criticized by the political left, human rights groups and bishops from the
Vatican’s migration foundation, whose president chastised Italy for “jailing”
migrants abroad.
But at a
moment when the European mainstream is shifting right on migration issues, Ms.
Meloni’s plan has gained praise from Brussels. On Monday, the center-right
president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the deal could
serve as a model for dealing with migrants.
“Meloni is
looking for a middle ground,” said Claudio Cerasa, the editor of the Italian
daily Il Foglio. “Between Orban and the bishops.”
Emma Bubola
is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola
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