Awarding Right Wing Nationalists Undermines Democracy

Rula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist, author, scholar, and foreign policy expert and is a board member of the Center for International Policy

Last Tuesday, the Atlantic Council gave its “Global Citizen” award to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In her acceptance speech, Meloni stressed the importance of patriotism, Western Civilization and remembering one’s roots. Let’s be clear about this: Her conception of patriotism is ultra-nationalist. Last year, Meloni hailed Spain’s neo-fascist Vox Party as patriots when she endorsed them. This at least is consistent. Meloni hails from the tradition of the neo-fascist Movement and has tried to rehabilitate Italy’s fascist past – a bloody history she never totally disavowed. 

The Atlantic Council presents itself as a champion of liberal values, freedom of expression, and the “rules-based international order”. It is putatively opposed to far-right extremism and authoritarianism abroad. Its decision to bestow an award, and its own imprimatur, on someone whose rule and associations are increasingly authoritarian is therefore baffling. 

Since she was elected two years ago, Meloni has been waging a war on journalists, historians and critics, weaponizing defamation lawsuits to intimidate and silence them. I was the first journalist to be sued over a tweet exposing Meloni’s espousal of the Great Replacement Theory, which casts migrants and asylum seekers as criminals and invaders. The Great Replacement Theory has become a staple of neo-fascist ideology, and has motivated racist violence from the Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand to theTree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh.

As if this was not enough, now Meloni’s pro-Putin deputy Matteo Salvini is also suing me for calling him an extremist. In 2018, Salvini’s own party pick as candidate, Luca Traini, was convicted for terrorism because of his attempt to murder six people of color. Traini was cited in the manifesto of Christchurch murderer, who was inspired by Traini’s terrorism. 

Venerating Meloni simply because she has taken the correct position on Ukraine is to miss the forest for the trees.

The environment of fear and persecution that Meloni is fostering in Italy goes beyond attacking professional critics. Meloni is also dismantling LGBTQ rights. Italy is removing gay mothers from children’s birth certificates, as part of the right-wing government’s crackdown on same-sex parenting.

In her award acceptance speech, Meloni defended her brand of nationalism and warned about the creeping infiltration of the West’s enemies, declaring “patriotism is the best response to declinism [sic].” Given her record, one wonders if she was referring to migrants and minorities or the opposition at home that she has often criminalized and incited against. 

Three years ago when Meloni participated in the congress of Spain’s neo-fascist Vox party, she emphasized their shared values: “no to the LGBT lobby, yes to the natural family, no to gender ideology, no to the violence of Islam, no to big international finance, no to the bureaucrats of Brussels.”Meloni’s affinity for Vox is understandable. The party’s charter violates Article 25 of Spain’s Constitution and includes a call to repeal democratic parties, oppose gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion.

Meloni also engaged in self-praise about her achievements in the field of anti-migrant dehumanization and brutalization, going so far as to present her bankrolling of brutal Arab dictators and warlords in Libya and Egypt (to block migration to Europe) as akin to the fight against slavery.

It’s clear that the Atlantic Council’s decision to give Meloni this award was driven by her support for Ukraine, for which the Council has been one of Washington’s most outspoken institutional advocates (It is also worth noting that, apparently at Meloni’s request, the award was given by right-wing oligarch Elon Musk, under whose control Twitter/X has become a sewer of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and harassment). The Center for International Policy, on whose board I serve, also supports the defense of Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression. We believe fundamental principles of international law and democratic values are at stake there.

But venerating Meloni simply because she has taken the correct position on Ukraine is to miss the forest for the trees.  Legitimizing far-right leaders –who are actively undermining press freedom, inflaming hatred and xenophobia, weakening LGBTQ rights in their own countries in the mode of Vladimir Putin–  does not uphold democratic values, it betrays them.