The once all-male Italian political scene has come a long way as evidenced by how the Right and the Left are now embodied in two women:  Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein (Sh-line).  These ladies are at odds in a cultural war that has its roots, strangely enough, in the Obama era.

The new right-wing government of Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, believes that Western societies have gone too far in undermining family values.  Most Italians agree with her and voted her into office last October.  Meloni made known her cultural agenda at a rally with the cry, “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby…no to gender ideology…no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!” 

Meloni has thrown down the gauntlet and the Left is responding with a new voice, that of a bisexual Parliamentary leader who wants Italy to follow the American path.  Her credentials are the stuff of the proverbial ‘strange bedfellow’.  Elena Ethel Schlein was born in Switzerland of a Jewish father with Ukrainian roots, and Italian mother (surname: Viviani).  She has triple citizenship: U.S., Swiss, and Italian.  She lived in America and volunteered in two of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. She also embraces the Marxist agenda of The Squad, “I have a lot of esteem for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the other women they work with…” [May, 2023 issue of Vogue Italia]

The media is quick to point out that Meloni is tainted with Fascism, she co-founded her party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) on the ashes of the neo-Fascist MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano).  However, they rarely reveal that Schlein’s Partito Democratico has its roots in the Italian Communist Party (PCI) – Italian politics is a mishmash of endless name changes and mergers.  What Schlein now represents is a radical shift in the very nation that gave birth to Western Civilization.

Italians may be known for innovation and creativity but the soul of an Italian is old-fashioned.  It is in our genes to want things to stay the same or change slowly.  Emperor Augustus expressed it as “Festina lente!” (“Make haste slowly!”)  In fact, the timeless laws of Nature have been our guiding principle since Roman senator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero preached their supremacy two millennia ago.  Italians were into “natural” before it became a fad.  These “Laws of Nature” made it to the preamble of our Declaration of Independence thanks to the study of Roman history by our Founding Fathers.

Italy has recognized same-sex marriage elsewhere since 2016 but does not permit such ceremonies in the homeland.  Lesbians are banned from accessing fertility treatment.  Gay adoption is only allowed under exceptional circumstances.  Last December, Italy’s highest court blocked local authorities from recognizing foreign birth certificates of offspring from surrogate births.  In March, the Meloni government ordered the city of Milan to stop registering non-biological gay parents.  Lesbian parents can only use the birthmother’s surname for their children.  These measures are at odds with the liberal regulations of the European Union, but Meloni and much of Italy do not want to be collaborators in their own societal demise.  The Vatican is a promoter of this resistance.

Ironies abound.  Despite their differences, neither Meloni nor Schlein is religious, and neither is married to her partner (only Meloni has a child).   Schlein is passionate about saving Nature and our planet yet could care less about the natural laws that guide most of humanity.  But the greater irony is that an Obama-inspired Leftist with three passports has the gall to radically change a society anchored for millennia on a Classical and Catholic foundation.

Does she even understand the soul of Italy?  -JLM