Italians went to the polls to elect a new government Sunday, and exit polls suggest the big winner will be a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni. Freakouts over Italian conservatives have become so common in recent years one might well ask what’s different this time.
Ms. Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy, a party with a lineage tracing to the fascist parties of the country’s past. She campaigned on culture-war issues such as her opposition to the “LGBTQ lobby.” Her coalition also brings back into proximity with power the League of Matteo Salvini and the Forza Italia party of Silvio Berlusconi, both European bogeymen in different ways.
