FASANO, Italy (CN) — From across the street, Oronzo Turchiarulo watched and listened as left-wingers and peaceniks shouted and marched against their enemies: The Group of Seven — and everything it stands for — and Giorgia Meloni, Italy's neo-fascist prime minister who's suddenly at the vanguard of world politics.
It was a colorful bit of political theater at a remarkable time in Italy, with white-washed Fasano, a southern township Meloni chose to host the G7 summit, at the center of it all last week.
When it comes down to it, this crucial political moment where the far right controls Italy for the first time since Benito Mussolini has been made possible by Italians just like Turchiarulo — a disillusioned voter willing to give Meloni and her neo-fascist party, the Brothers of Italy, a chance at governing.
“I wanted to see how they'd do because with the left, at the end of the day, there really wasn't any progress,” Turchiarulo said. “Public debt continues to grow; social inequalities are still there.”
Prior to voting for Meloni in September 2022, the 62-year-old Turchiarulo said he'd always voted for parties on the left, most recently for the radical antiestablishment 5-Star Movement, a maverick party at the helm in Italy prior to the era of Meloni.
Based on a series of interviews with people from Fasano last Saturday, Turchiarulo appeared to represent a common thread: Italians see Meloni as a bold alternative and they're not fazed by her party's neo-fascist roots.
In September 2022, Meloni rocked European Union politics when her Brothers of Italy won the nation's parliamentary elections with about 26% of the vote. In Fasano, a city of roughly 38,000 people in Puglia, a candidate with the right-wing coalition won about 51% of the votes.
Since then, Meloni has deftly made herself a linchpin in Western politics by tacking to the center — and jettisoning previous pro-Russia and anti-EU stances — while consolidating her power in Italy through a right-wing coalition.
At the G7 summit, Meloni seemed to be not just on top of European politics but on the top of the world, with journalists and pundits scratching their heads over how she was the only leader in the club of the world's wealthiest democracies with a strong political position at home.
Meloni is making Italians proud.
“She's a woman with a lot of character, a strong woman,” said Leonardo Cervellera, a 42-year-old undertaker in Fasano. “I think she's doing well for Italy.”
In recent elections, Cervellera did not vote for Meloni, choosing instead to back the 5-Star Movement and the recently deceased Italian magnate Silvio Berlusconi's conservative Forza Italia.
“She reminds me a bit of Berlusconi,” Cervellera said. “I really liked Berlusconi and I see his way of getting things done in her.”
After becoming prime minister in 1994, Berlusconi dominated Italian politics for the better part of two decades through a brand of divisive populist right-wing free-market politics. In taking power, Berlusconi also broke a taboo barring neo-fascists from entering the national government, paving the way for Meloni's rise to the premiership.
Based on her job performance so far, Cervellera said he would likely vote for Meloni next time, especially if she looks out for the interests of the lower classes and maintains Italy's strong position on the world stage.
“Those who were in power before Meloni didn't do much good,” he said. “We wanted a change in Italy and to give someone else a chance and see if they can do any good.”
He wasn't concerned about her neo-fascist roots.
“I'm not afraid,” he said. “I don't like communists.”
Then he added: “Anyway, there really aren't communists or fascists anymore. They're all kind of in the center.”
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