Liz Truss sent a surprising tweet marking the expected win of Giorgia Meloni in the Italian elections on Monday night – and it hasn’t landed particularly well.
The tweet itself seemed rather typical for one European leader to send to another. It read: “Congratulations to @GiorgiaMeloni on her party’s success in the Italian elections. From supporting Ukraine to addressing global economic challenges, the UK and Italy are close allies.”
However, Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy party, which has its origins in Italian fascism.
Meloni, while she will be Italy’s first female prime minister, she will also be the country’s first far-right leader since Benito Mussolini, who ruled until the end of the Second World War.
She has tried to move the party – and her own reputation – away from its fascist past, despite still employing a slogan so often linked to that period: “God, fatherland and family.”
Meloni is also anti-immigration and rigid on LGBT rights, although she has championed assistance for anyone struggling during cost of living crisis throughout her campaign, which is believed to have helped her get ahead of her opponents and secure 26% of the expected vote.
And, while Meloni has promised to stick to Italy’s Nato commitments, and continue backing European sanctions against Russia, her coalition partners – Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi – have both been linked to the Kremlin.
So, Twitter was not exactly delighted by Truss’ wording in her congratulations tweet – especially as only a few weeks ago, she said the “jury is out” on whether French president Emmanuel Macron is friend or foe.
Mussolini’s heir is a friend but the jury is out on Macron ?https://t.co/F4KdCZ5PHr
— Tom Ferguson (@tom10248) September 27, 2022
For context, Brussels greeted Meloni’s expected win by warning that Italy still has to follow democratic principles.
Similarly, French president Emmanuel Macron simply said that the government respects the democratic choice of Italian voters.
But Russia was pleased about the results, as a Kremlin spokesperson told reporters: “We are ready to welcome any political forces that are able to go beyond the established mainstream, which is filled with hate for our country.”
China, too, has said it hopes there would be a “healthy and stable” relationship between the two countries.
