Ultimately, this referendum campaign has shown the true nature of Giorgia Meloni: she has no particular talents, other than that of holding herself firmly to her seat, trying to ward off any defeats from her person, such as, for example, the bitter cup of debacle referendum. The parallel is easy and immediate: the 2016 referendum, with Matteo Renzi. At the time, the latter made it a personal issue, even saying “If I lose, I’ll resign”. And so it was. Question of way of being. On the contrary, Meloni had her people fire obscene chained balls against the judiciary – from Minister Carlo Nordio, to his head of cabinet Giusi Bartolozzi, passing through Fratelli d’Italia senator Franco Zaffini – while she went away to Fedez and Mr. Marra, or on Rete 4 to pontificate without cross-examination.

Complacent journalists and friends

Meloni is able to hold a confrontation only with friendly and compliant journalists, or with influencers under investigation – Fedez is currently under investigation by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office for affray, injury and battery in connection with the beating of the personal trainer Cristiano Iovino – and, among other things, information amateurs, without any skills to carry out political analysis and, therefore, incapable of supporting a possible cross-examination with the interviewee. Giuseppe Conte and Elly Schlein did well to refuse the invitation from the two podcasters. The final result rewarded them. Or, depending on your point of view, the “genius” of reaching out to the “young” – and probably non-voting – audience of podcasts has turned out to be an embarrassing failure. It is no coincidence that the symbolic image of the centre-right referendum campaign has become the photo of the Prime Minister (male, mind you) in the midst of a personal trainer and amateur porn actor on Onlyfans and a tone-deaf singer, albeit equipped with autotune. In other words, the banality of evil. Political and institutional lack of culture. The sign of the times of pneumatic vacuum combined with the fragile leadership of today. Including Giorgia Meloni’s brief reprimanding her faithful Francesco Filini – FdI parliamentarian and right-hand man of Giovambattista Fazzolari, Undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council – guilty of having interrupted her while she was expressing a fine reasoning, because she was blocked by the Shure SM7B. In the end it would have been enough to put a cushion on Meloni’s chair. Trick that the good soul of the Knight of Arcore often used. It is no coincidence that he usually won political campaigns.

The power, the armchair and the emptiness of the mission

This is the world of Giorgia Meloni. A continuous obstacle course between the contingencies of the moment and his innate thirst for power and the unconditional reflex to maintain his status. You never said “If I lose, I’ll resign”, but rather, you made a point of specifying the opposite. Although, in the end, she did her utmost on a media level to bring the votes to “Yes”, effectively making it a personal battle. She doesn’t give up the chair. He doesn’t resign. Making him lose a little the reason for his political mission. If she is not ready to sacrifice herself for a cause – for example, in this case, a constitutional reform of such great importance – what on earth could distinguish her mandate? Donald Trump’s strategy of one shot at the circle and one at the barrel in the relationship between Europe and the USA? Is the growth of the Italian economy close to zero? The fact that wages, especially for young people in the workforce, are among the lowest in Europe? Having ministers investigated and sent to trial for fraud against the State, who must not and cannot resign, otherwise Meloni wouldn’t even know how to manage a government reshuffle? The tragicomedy of the former minister – and now a journalist compliant towards you – at Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano and his lunar replacement Alessandro Giuli, who has an imperial eagle tattooed on his chest? The forced occupation of Rai – as has never happened before – with audience ratings plummeting to the benefit of the Mediaset networks? A right-wing cultural hegemony that is ultimately being reduced to allowing, for example, Angelo Mellone, an associate of Colle Oppio, to promote his career as a chansonnier, poet and writer (in short, an all-round showman) from the enviable position of director of Rai’s Day Time Entertainment Directorate? It is likely that his government mandate will be remembered for the fact that the noun “Brothers” in the name of his party was actually indicative of a decisive government strategy: to give a place to all relatives, direct or acquired? Or again – and I swear I’ll end it here, but the list would be very long – that his government could be remembered for a Defense Minister who was in Dubai on the same day as the American attack on Iran and who, to this day, we still don’t know for sure what he was doing there and why he knew nothing about that military operation? No, his government will be remembered for its iron will to remain in power, like a new Andreotti. Because, Giorgia Meloni’s true nature, after thirty years of elective politics, is to keep her seat. And there is nothing that could hurt her more than abandoning the seat. So much so that she aspires to be the first female President of the Republic (but even there, the noun will always be male).

Disintermediation, MAGA and podcast shorthand

It was said about Meloni by Mr. Marra and Fedez on the video podcast “Pulp podcast”. It will be said that too much importance has been given to this thing. But it is also true that it was the last act of Meloni’s referendum propaganda. And, therefore, it must have had a certain importance. Not to mention the usual spindoctors looking for work (of these, for one who makes a living, a thousand others are starving), all skinning their hands on Linkedin, Instagram and TikTok in their efforts to let us “boomers” or “old tools of the last century” know what a brilliant move it had been and how this idea would have decided the fate of the referendum. And how old were those who didn’t feel healthy enthusiasm for this broadening of the horizons of political communication. A million views in a matter of hours after it was put online! Wow, damn, capers! But this choice too, like many others, is in line with a certain MAGA culture. As I have already had the opportunity to write in the past, the well-known strategy of promoting podcasters and influencers as a sounding board, to the detriment of newspapers and traditional places and means of information, is one of the cornerstones of MAGA propaganda. Disintermediation eliminates the intermediaries between sources and the public, revolutionizing the media. Newspapers and TV give way to social networks like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and

Today, users, influencers and politicians publish directly on social media, bypassing journalistic editorial offices. Algorithms curate personalized feeds, making social media the first source of information for young people. If on the one hand there are undoubted benefits, such as the creation of interactivity on the part of the recipients of the information and a greater democratization of the information process, as well as speed and immediacy, on the other hand there are undeniable drawbacks: fake news, strengthening of the so-called echo chambers and consequent polarization of the different positions. In addition to the fact that Fedez who interviews Meloni, for example, is not required to do any fact-checking, not having to comply with any code of ethics, other than that which refers to views, followers and advertising revenue. And so Meloni, like the MAGA movement, in the name of a supposed fight against mainstream information, downgrades journalistic information to a deployed obstacle, to promote a lifestyle podcast as a megaphone of his own political position. Even though she, like the MAGAs in the USA, governs the country and holds absolute control, for example, of the Rai networks and its journalistic editorial offices. Showing oneself as victims, despite holding power. This is the big lie of this new international right. Victimhood as a stylistic feature of God’s government action. An oxymoron in terms – more prosaically in Naples we would say “chiagni e fotti”.

The referendum vote is a judgment on the Meloni government

However, despite Meloni’s strenuous attempts not to personalize the referendum, this was clearly a vote against his work. With respect to its non-existent economic policy, its deficient foreign policy, its stuttering conduct with its European partners and its submission to Donald Trump’s wishes – now perceived at an international and national level – as a source of destabilization. So much so that the Prime Minister himself (clearly male), a few days before the vote, pulled the rabbit out of the hat: the cut in excise duties on fuel. A bit like Silvio Berlusconi did when, at the end of the face-to-face meeting on Canale 5 with Romano Prodi on 19 April 1996, he suddenly launched the promise to abolish ICI on first homes, announcing it as a “final stroke of genius”, without leaving time to reply to the Bolognese Professor. Here, you fool, is the one about Berlusconi’s ICI and this one about the cut in excise duties. Stratagems that are used when one is in difficulty and the polls announce a comeback of one’s opponents. Ultimately, Giorgia Meloni, presented as theunderdog of Garbatella, is nothing more than a direct product of the era of Berlusconism. A political exponent who has been in power for almost thirty years – since she was elected councilor of the Province of Rome in 1998 at just 21 years old – and with an innate instinct for preservation, typically Christian Democrat (rather than neo-fascist), of the seat. Yes, this is true made in Italy.