IS THE WEST REALLY UNDER SIEGE?

WHAT PRIME MINISTER MELONI COULD HAVE SAID AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL

In this essay I analyze the speech the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni delivered at the recently held ceremony of the the Atlantic Council’s 2024 Global Citizen Awards. Instead of proposing a future oriented version of conservatism, PM Meloni unleashes her vision of the West under siege. Such a missed opportunity.

What a wasted opportunity for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Atlantic Council’s 2024 Global Citizen Awards where she was awarded together with other heads of state and governments.

Let’s leave aside my perplexity about the merits for which Ms. Meloni got such an acknowledgement.

I do not believe she deserved it but this is not the point I want to make in this piece.

I do believe that Italian Prime Minister could have used this occasion to present a more modern, future oriented version of conservatism.

Instead, she opted to focus on two very familiar issues to her, her obsession for the motherland through nationalism and patriotism and linked to it, the need of defending the West’s civilization and its way of life.

Meloni and the West in Danger

According to her, the whole idea of West whose culture and traditions she is so proud of belonging to, is in grave danger.

These are some of the core elements that are so central to her philosophy of governing and to me, these are worthy to be called into question.

Her premise, the fact that West needs to put its pieces together and starts acting strong and without any shames, while perhaps unsurprising, is misleading.

Such type of rhetoric, after all, is very convenient for Prime Minister Meloni.

On the one hand it allows her to appease not only her core political base, the very conservative, hard right electors in Italy that brought her to power.

On the other hand, she also pivots to the moderately conservative middle class that decided to trust her at the ballot.

At the same time this rhetoric is fitting for Ms. Meloni because: she is projecting a staunch but not irrational (read crazy radical) version of conservative ideology that can be seen as acceptable.

Let’s try to break down her speech at the Atlantic Council.

Being nationalists for the Italian Prime Minister is a prerequisite to ensure that the West nations maintain their leadership position in the world.

Such position does explain her outlook of the world that shapes her vision of doing politics, both domestically and internationally.

It is safe to say that, because of it, indeed the so-called conservative pundits both in Europe and in North America found in her a formidable defender and protector.

Not everything Ms. Meloni deserved to be pushed back.

For example, there is nothing wrong about praising or valuing patriotism or even some key values that are core tenants of the liberal world.

My criticism towards her speech is on how she links nationalism with patriotism and the imperative of defending the West at any costs.

After all, she is right when she claimed that civic liberties and freedoms in general are under threat by authoritarian regimes around the world.

So, yes, it is essential that those members of the international community that have their political systems centered around ideals like democracy, pluralism and human rights, step up and do more to defend these values.

But her conception of West is at risk of jeopardizing the international cooperation she professes to pursue.

Because the West does not have the monopoly on these principles.

The reason is simple: such values are universal and have been embraced by many countries not belonging to Meloni’s West.

These are the same countries who have suffered by the expansionist and hegemonic policies that the West had led over the last two centuries.

This includes also the scourge of colonialism of which PM’s country, Italy, cannot be exempted from and nor the plague of fascism that was originated from there.

By defending the West as the only torch bearer of certain universal values, PM Meloni is potentially furthering the divide between democracies in the South and those from the North.

Following her logic, there is a danger of antagonizing those nations outside Meloni’s West which, quite correctly, are still blaming it for the atrocities it committed in the past.

Prime Minister Meloni indeed portrays the West nations as the only indispensable who can protect the world from the rising regimes that systematically are dismantling the liberalism’s tenants.

“The West is a system of values in which the person is central, men and women are equal and free and, therefore, the systems are democratic, life is sacred, the state is secular and based on the rule of law” she said.

When she explained two big dangers for the West, she then deploys one of best toolkits, scaremongering.

First, she spoke of Oikophobia.

“The diversion to one’s home, a mounting incontent (?? Probably she referred to a combination of feelings stemming from unhappiness, complain and frustration felt by the common people) which leads us to want to violently erase the symbols of our civilizations in the US as in Europe. The second risk is the paradox that while on the one hand the West looks down on itself on the other hand often claims to be superior to the others”.

She continued.

“The result is that the West is in danger of becoming a less credible interlocutor. The so-called Global South is demanding more influence. Developing nations that are by now, largely, established there are autonomously collaborating among themselves”.

“I ask and wonder to myself and to you are these values of which we should be ashamed of and are these values — and do these values drive us away from the others or they bring us closer to the others”.

Let’s be clear: there is nothing to be ashamed of while defending liberal values.

But focusing only on the West as the only custodian of these values, also downplays other ancient civilizations that did so much to contribute to the rise of the West.

These are ideas and approaches that the West aptly exploited for its own development and supremacy’.

Let’s be clear: while Meloni does not evoke a clash among civilizations, she plays the “West vs Others” card.

Through the same hand, PM Meloni plays the victimhood’s card.

She describes a West that is losing confidence in itself, that stopped believing in its potential even if sometimes the same West, according to her (and this is correct), still shows hints of superiority towards the rest of the world.

Meloni could have praised the whole diverse democratic world, of which the West plays a central role, highlighting the contributions played by other democratic nations from the Global South, nations with different religions, cultures and identities.

It is true that she talked about development cooperation and aid when she touched on her government’s Piano Mattei and building a future with Africa based on a “model of cooperation based on equal footing to build a new long-term partnership with African countries.”

But well, Meloni did not invented international aid and international development, did she?

Yet it looks like she is the first leader championing what are indispensable and yet imperfect tools.

But PM Meloni is truly convinced that the authoritarian regimes will prevail over the West because of the latter’s decadence.

“There is a narrative that authoritarian regimes care so much. It is about the idea of the inevitable decline of the — decline of the West, the idea that democracies are failing to deliver”

It is true that the many democratic nations are under stress and their economies are struggling to deliver.

But if you think about it, the rise to power of Giorgia Meloni and her party happened because of she was able to exploit this situation, this general sense of malaise that is affecting many industrialized nations of the West.

During the covid pandemic, she opposed many common-sense, science-based policies and she thrived on populistic messages.

This is an approach that paid off handsomely for her and her party and for many far-right populist parties both in Europe and North America.

Isn’t this hypocritical and double standard?

At the end of the day, her speech at the Atlantic Council was a light, whitewashed version of a portray of a West that is under siege.

Do not you think that this vision is not too far, though far more acceptable and palatable, from the ideology embraced by Donal Trump in the USA?

PM Meloni’s political vision is power by and through nationalism that is foundational to a strong West.

During the speech, she also mentioned that the West should learn from its past mistakes but she does not mention any of them.

Was colonialism a mistake for example?

Why didn’t’ PM Meloni focus on probably few of the best lessons learned the West had in the aftermath of the Second World War?

I am talking about Marshall Plan and the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and its later transformation, the European Economic Community and the current European Union.

Can’t, for example, someone be proud of being Italian while at the same time be proud of being European at the same time?

Maybe PM Meloni thinks of herself as a proud European but only through the prism of an idea of Europe as the cradle of all civilizations, a Europe centered on its Judaic Christian traditions.

But can’t we be proud of our traditions while also be open to diversity?

Can’t we value our history while acknowledging its shortcoming and also embrace cultures different from ours?

Again, if European politicians keep holding high their “nationalist” card, then, the whole project of European integration will collapse.

Probably someone like Meloni would be simply happy to go back to the era of economic cooperation, to the eighties when we had the European Economic Community and nothing more.

After all, how does it make sense to focus on sheer nationalism, something very different from patriotism, in a decade in which Europe is at risk of being smashed by bigger powers?

Meloni is an astute politician who, during her speech at the Atlantic Council, said she wants to lead and not follow.

Leading or Following ?

“As a politician, you basically have two options: being a leader or a follower, to point the cursor or not, to act for the good of your people or to act only driven by polls. Well, my ambition is to lead and not to follow. Yeah”.

Yet she is following the European Union because she knows that without it, her own country will economically be speaking, falter away.

Conveniently, at least at international level, she follows mainstream positions.

Since she in power, she stopped bashing the EU as she did while she was still in opposition, climbing to power from the fringes of the far right.

Meloni might not believe in the EU but she is too smart to deny her existential importance.

For her, the EU is not a political project that is so powerful that, building on the history of its member states, can transcend them without erasing or extinguish their cultural identities.

Europe, instead for her, is a convenient and indispensable means for Italy’s survival, a tool that she will never embrace with true passion and love.

That’s why it is much more convenient and appealing for her to talk about a generic West rather than focusing on what the EU’s contributions to the world.

In her speech, it seemed that PM Meloni was playing an offensive, an attack game, providing a launching pad for a future in which the West will thrive.

Yet, actually she was just playing self-defense as she always does even if people do not realize it and that’s why she is a so successful politician.

“Our freedom and our values and the pride we feel for them are the weapons our adversaries fear the most. So we can’t give up the strength of our own identity, for that would be the best gift we can make to authoritarian regimes” she said in her speech.

Let’s imagine a different speech where Meloni could have said something different.

What about the following?

“Our freedom and our values are what make democracies so different from other political systems. We need to work tirelessly to defend them. How can we do it? By building a stronger Europe, by forging stronger ties across the Atlantic based on shared values.

But we must do so by engaging at the par with the South of the world by interacting with cultures that are different from ours but not inferior. Despite the differences, they are so similar to us because of they believe in human rights and democracy with as much conviction as we do.

Actually, we need to acknowledged that our own future prosperity depends on theirs;

We must admit that our past prosperity was possible because of the ideas that were born far from us, ideas we appropriated also through the use of sheer violence.

We can build bridges with the world by admitting the grave mistakes we committed in the past, apologizing solemnly for these sins, including the ones committed by fascism in Africa and Balkans.

With humility but also with strength, we can lay the basis for shared prosperity where democracy and human rights can be embraced by the whole humanity, proving authoritarian regimes wrong”.

She could have continued in the following way:

“I have a clear view and vision of the society that is conservative in nature and I am not ashamed of my positions and beliefs.

But this does not preclude respecting and reaching out those who think differently from me and engaging them. Because policy making is not white or black, there are many gray areas in which we can find common positions with those who have a different vision of life and politics.

I learned, while assuming the high responsibility of leading the Government of Italy, that a strong, united and values-based Europe is essential to uphold universal human rights and democracy around the world. We must be proud of this mission. Let’s work together with the international community to strengthen these values, by opening up to the world without forgetting where all of us are from”.

Will PM Meloni, one day, be able to muster the courage to lose consent among many of its followers by espousing a more modern, onward looking, future oriented conservatism?

An ideology that embraces truly universal values while welcoming the diversity of cultures and identities that characterize many democratic nations outside the West.

Truly reaching them out will be a sign of strength and maturity that Meloni still does not have.

In the long term, her ability to remain among the leaders of the “Free World”, will depend on her making such a choice.