This is the little Italy that Meloni wants: reactionary, authoritarian and bigoted.

Giorgia Meloni had never attended the Communion and Liberation meeting in Rimini , yet yesterday she was playing on home soil and knew it. She certainly captivated the audience with her shower of accolades and certificates of merit, her quotations from the Catholic poet T.S. Eliot onward, and above all, her inspired, community-inspired language. But there was no need.

The audience was ready to burst into thunderous applause at every significant point in the speech, and they didn't need asking. Giorgia Meloni offered the members of the CL, and certainly not only them, what they wanted—the comprehensive picture of a complete reactionary turnaround—and what they needed—the ability to dress the project in an attractive guise: that of a reactionary conservatism capable of presenting itself as innovative and dynamic. As a remedy for a present that, also in homage to the guests, she describes as " a world conquered by nothing," a "physical and existential desert," the prime minister suggests " a new way of living ancient identities ." A step backward capable of inspiring dreams of the future: the gift of all great reactionary leaders, and Giorgia Meloni's declared ambition is to rightfully enter that pantheon.

There's no point in searching for novelty in Rimini's lengthy inaugural address: the only novelty is the announcement of " a major housing plan with affordable housing for young couples, " not only to help families but also to boost the birth rate, because if the demographic curve isn't reversed , "soon there will be no European civilization left to defend." What's new is the systematic and thorough way Meloni outlines her plan, obviously with all the usual claims of success, with the for once not-so-sharp jabs at the opposition, with the certainly not unheard-of list of what has already been accomplished and what remains to be done. But the emphasis isn't on this or that excellence, and it's well known that for her, the work of her government is all about excellence. It's not even in the almost threatening challenge she launches, especially on the front that most rankles her, that of immigration: "Any attempt made to prevent us from addressing the immigration problem will be rejected: no judge, politician, or bureaucrat can stop us from enforcing the law." The emphasis falls instead on the homogeneity of a methodically pursued framework in which everything is connected and everything is homogeneous.

That picture is real, not some boastful Salvini-style boast. It's the dream, or nightmare, of an Italy that is completely reactionary in every respect, built on the traditional family and a cultural counterrevolution openly invoked because until now those who considered " parenthood an archaic and patriarchal concept" have prevailed. Built on law and order, with the uniformed reconquest of all those areas where a cowardly state " had decided to retreat ." Founded on the denial of any conflict at work because " I have never met an employer who didn't consider his employees their most precious resource ." Meloni has the ability to deny from the outset what she reiterates in the long continuation: the ideological component of her politics: " We have chosen the field not of ideologies and utopias but of reality: a trillion ideas are not worth a single person."

A thoroughly right-wing ideological vision thus disguises itself as a pragmatism dictated solely by necessity, which the prime minister truly resorts to only in matters of foreign policy. Pro-European and Draghian, but with the goal of a Europe very different from her original project: a sum of national identities converging only on common interests held together by " culpably denied cultural and religious roots." Determined to defend her role as Trump's right-hand man in Europe, she even extols the invisible " glimmers of dialogue with Moscow " and, for the first time, uses harsh words against the Netanyahu government , while carefully avoiding even the remotest allusion to any concrete pressure on Israel.

Salvini also arrived in Rimini this afternoon . He was careful to tone things down after the diplomatic incident with Macron , but he was still far less diplomatic than the prime minister: Draghi is right about the destructive side of his speech on Europe at the meeting's opening, but he's wrong about the recipe. We need much less Europe, not more. While avoiding the insult, he reiterated to Macron that not a single Italian soldier would risk their lives in Ukraine. He and the prime minister appeared, as usual, different, and it's no coincidence that Giorgia made sure not only to avoid a photo together but even to cross paths with him. They are indeed different: in their methods, their strategy, their tone, and above all, in the caliber of their political talent. But at the finish line, the chimera of a reactionary Italy, the unassuming Matteo and the subtle Giorgia think exactly the same.

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David Romoli