Vox’s flop is good for Giorgia Meloni

There are friends she loses because she decides it and there are friends she loses instead because the voters decide it. Vox’s clamorous defeat in the Spanish elections – yo soy partido, yo soy populista, yo soy de derecha, yo soy una sola – contrary to what one might believe is excellent news for Giorgia Meloni. As is well known, the Italian premier had bet heavily on twinning with Vox’s extremist friends. She did it in the past, participating in the presence of the Vox conventions, and she did it recently, also participating, in connection, with a surprise video, in one of the last electoral demonstrations organized by Santiago Abascal. “The time for patriots has come: I hope that Vox will play an important role in the next government,” Meloni said on 13 July. Things went as you know. Vox lost around 600,000 votes and 19 deputies compared to the 2019 policies. And the concrete possibility that the Spanish People’s Party, led by Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, could come to power, hand in hand with the Vox extremists, motivated the voters of the Socialist Party, allowing Pedro Sánchez a not bad comeback (according to almost all the polls released before the elections, the PP should have easily won the elections, together with Vox).. The disaster obtained by the Brothers of Spain represents bad news for the Meloni of struggle (yo soy Giorgia, soy una mujer) but instead represents excellent news for the Meloni of government (yo soy Meloni, soy una premier). The Spanish lesson is obvious. Allying with extremist parties in Europe scares voters, brings no votes and alienates them from the government. And parties that want to forcefully exercise their governing prerogatives will increasingly be forced to leave extremism behind. In these first nine months of government, Meloni has tried to push his party onto a less populist and more moderate trajectory, also trying to lock some skeletons from her past in the closet.