Giorgia Meloni may have campaigned on challenging the European institutions but, in reality, she is aligned with the EU and NATO establishment, who will be quite content with her victory, according to Yanis Varoufakis.

The Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party cruised to victory in the Italian elections, which will form a broader right-wing alliance including Lega and Forza Italia. And while Meloni is certainly not the first choice for the European Union, she nevertheless ticks some important boxes.

“The established class of the European Union (the Commission, the Troika, the ECB, Berlin, the bankers, etc.) would prefer an electoral victory for their chosen ones, namely the Democratic Party, which has signed every disastrous mandate for Italy that has come from Brussels since 2010,” Varoufakis said.

“However, Mrs Meloni is a good Plan B for the European and NATO establishment as the new Prime Minister has already given her backing in two key policy areas:

“First, unlike [Matteo] Salvini and his party which crashed electorally, Meloni has already fully subscribed to the hard NATO line of unconditional military involvement alongside Ukraine.

“Second, again unlike both Salvini and his former co-governors, the Five Star Movement, Meloni has renounced her earlier disagreements with the Eurozone architecture and the economic policies dictated by Brussels and the ECB.”

Varoufakis believes that the far-right threat that Meloni poses will not be anything new for the EU, comparing the situation to the one in Greece with Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“The only likely source of friction between Meloni and Brussels will be over rights, the targeting of immigrants and freedom of the press – meaning, at worst, the European establishment will have problems with Ms Meloni like the ones it has with Mr Mitsotakis,” he said.

“In conclusion, yesterday’s Italian elections signal the absorption by the European and NATO establishment of Italian neo-fascism, much as in Greece New Democracy and the Extreme Centre absorbed the elected members of LAOS [Popular Orthodox Rally], resulting in the normalisation, legitimisation and implementation of the far-right agenda.”

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