Latest news with #BrothersOfItaly
Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Times
Meloni ally whips up ‘rich risotto' to rival antifascist pasta
T wo staples of Italian cuisine — pasta and risotto — have once again become pawns in a century-old ideological row that has shifted the playing field of Italian politics from parliament to the kitchen. Giorgia Meloni's party is increasingly using food to broadcast national pride and political allegiance. Joe Formaggio, a restaurant owner and Veneto regional councillor for the prime minister's Brothers of Italy party, has created an 'anti-communist risotto', a creamy concoction with black truffles, that has rattled Italy's left-wingers who have long championed pasta as the food of the Italian worker. 'Friends sent me the propagandist images of leftists eating sauceless pasta … and I thought, 'we have to do something',' said Formaggio who was raised in the Veneto region's Berici hills that are famed for their truffle risotto. 'There's a difference between an insipid, sauceless pasta dish and a rich risotto with truffle that has now become the culinary symbol of anti-communism.'
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Italy is still a signatory of the Paris Agreement, as of July 2025
A since-suspended account posing as a news outlet on X claimed Italy withdrew from the Paris Agreement, following in the footsteps of the United States, which President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord for the second time when he returned to the White House in January 2025. But no experts, official documents or credible media sources have reported that Italy walked away from its climate targets within the treaty, as of July 2025. "After the United States, Italy is also withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement," says a July 9, 2025 post shared thousands of times on X. The account, "Update News," portrayed itself as media and shared a photo of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to accompany its claim. On July 18, the account was suspended. Similar posts circulated widely across social media platforms and in various languages, including French, Dutch, Turkish and Spanish. On his first day back in the White House in January 2025, Trump announced the United States would leave the Paris Agreement, which is managed by the United Nations climate change body and aims to keep global average temperature rise below a critical threshold (archived here). Under the far-right Brothers of Italy party, Meloni's government has repeatedly criticized multi-lateral climate agreements. She said the European Green Deal should be revised and could lead to deindustrialization, while her administration has sought to transform Italy into a "gas hub" for the Mediterranean. But online claims that the country withdrew in July 2025 from its commitment to reduce its emissions are not supported by governmental sources and have not been reported by credible media outlets, AFP found. Like most European Union member states, Italy was in the first batch of signatories of the accord in April 2016, after the treaty's adoption in December 2015 (archived here). The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's ratification page and the United Nations treaty collection page are both publicly available and show Italy as a signatory, as of July 21, 2025 (archived here and here). A search for notifications pertaining to withdrawals from the Paris Agreement yielded results for the United States -- which officially withdrew from the accord January 27 -- but not for Italy. "We have not heard anything about Italy withdrawing from the Paris Agreement," Leandro Vigna, data partnerships and outreach manager for the nonprofit Climate Watch, told AFP in a July 16 email. The group, which collects data on countries' progress in their climate targets established for the Paris Agreement, still displays the nation on its platform. Keyword searches of the Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, a governmental resource that publishes Italian legislation, as well as the Italian government website and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research did not surface any relevant announcements about a withdrawal of the country from the treaty, either. In 2025, the European Commission -- of which Italy is a member -- reiterated its intent to make the bloc's economy carbon neutral by 2050 and promised to stick with targets set so far, including a 90 percent cut to greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. AFP reached out to an Italian government spokesperson for comment, but no response was forthcoming. Other climate debunks can be found here.
Free Malaysia Today
16-07-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Italian PM Meloni warns against ‘trade war within the West'
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy will do its part as the EU holds off on responding in hopes of reaching a deal with the US. (EPA Images pic) ROME : Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned Sunday against the perception of a 'trade war within the West', following US President Donald Trump's announcements of 30% tariffs on EU products. 'A trade war within the West would weaken us all in the face of the global challenges we are confronting together,' Meloni said in a statement released by her office. 'Europe has the economic and financial strength to assert its position and reach a fair and sensible agreement,' she said. 'Italy will do its part. As always,' she added, as the EU holds off on a response in the hopes of reaching an agreement. Trump announced Saturday that products imported into the US from the European Union and Mexico would be subject to 30% tariffs starting Aug 1. Since then, Italian opposition parties have criticised Meloni and her far-right party Brothers of Italy, while opposition Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte accusing her of 'bowing her head' to Washington's threats. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that Brussels would not retaliate against US tariffs on steel and aluminium for now, hoping to secure a deal to avoid broader 30% levy on all its exported products.
Malay Mail
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Despite mass rallies, Italy's fractured left fails to mount real challenge to Meloni's rising far-right popularity
ROME, July 15 — Hundreds of thousands of people attended protests in Rome last month hailed as a show of strength against Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government, but Italy's divided opposition is struggling to make an impact. Almost three years after its historic election victory, Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party remains the most popular, polling at 29 percent — above the 26 percent it secured in the September 2022 vote, according to the latest YouTrend survey. The prime minister herself tops polls of party leaders with an approval rating of 45 percent, according to Ipsos. The traditional left is struggling across Europe, where populist parties — particularly the far-right — have gained ground in recent years. And in Italy, which once had Western Europe's largest Communist Party, 'there is a crisis in the left', commented Paolo Borioni, professor of political science at Rome's Sapienza University. He said left-wing parties had 'severed their historical class ties', notably with those on lower incomes. The opposition is dominated by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), currently polling at around 22 percent, and the Five Star Movement, with around 13 percent. Marc Lazar, a professor at Sciences Po Paris and Luiss University in Rome, said both are paying the price for their record in government, where they 'disappointed, they did not address social issues'. The PD adopted several measures that liberalised the labour market and cut public spending while in power after the 2013 election. Since then, they have lost over three million votes. For its part, the Five Star triumphed in 2018 elections on an anti-establishment message, only to ally with its declared enemies while in government. People gather around the Freedom Flotilla ship "Handala" ahead of the boat's departure for Gaza at a port in Syracuse, Sicily, southern Italy, on July 13, 2025. — AFP pic Gaza, Ukraine The PD chose a new leader after the 2022 elections, Elly Schlein, who has tacked further left, championing a national minimum wage and increased spending on education and healthcare. The Five Star under former premier Giuseppe Conte is also pushing for a minimum wage and a basic income for the most vulnerable. 'Meloni, like all the right, claims to defend the people but only defends the big hedge funds, the big banks,' Riccardo Ricciardi, president of the Five Star parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies, told AFP. Both parties have also sought to mobilise public concern about rising defence budgets and Israel's offensive in Gaza. Five Star threw its weight behind a large protest in Rome last month against rearmament, an issue that Lazar noted 'poses a challenge to Giorgia Meloni' in a country with a long tradition of peace movements. But divisions on the issue within the PD have undermined the opposition's ability to attack the government. Both the PD and Five Star also backed a huge protest on Gaza, but some PD supporters accused Schlein of being slow to take up the issue. 'They lack courage,' lamented Arianna D'Archivio, a 23-year-old student organiser at the rearmament protest. A third large demonstration took place for Pride, an explicit challenge to Meloni's socially conservative agenda. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (right) shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) at the end of their press conference, as part of The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC2025) at The Roma Convention Centre in Rome on July 10, 2025. — AFP pic Vote alliances Meloni shares government with the smaller far-right League party and the centre-right Forza Italia, which gives her a majority in parliament. Despite their differences, PD and Five Star have tried teaming up at the ballot box, with joint candidates winning regional elections in Emilia-Romagna and Umbria in 2024, as well as the northern city of Genoa in May. They also both supported a recent referendum on labour market reform, although it failed due to low turnout. Schlein insisted the PD was making progress. 'We will happily leave the polls to Meloni's right, but we are winning elections,' she told AFP at a recent event. The PD performed better than expected in last year's European Parliament elections, winning 24 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for Meloni's party — but with a historically low turnout. A man poses with a placard reading 'Meloni, your hate is a crime against humanity' during the Pride march in support of LGBTQ rights, in Rome on June 14, 2025. — AFP pic Disconnected For Dario Salvetti, an auto industry worker from Florence, the left is 'broken', 'disconnected from the masses' in a country where salaries have been stalled for decades and one in ten Italians is classified as living in poverty. For analyst Borioni, there is 'no rightward shift in the population in Italy', just more people are abandoning the left. Activists meanwhile see the problem as politics, not the left itself. Francesca Ciuffi, a 27-year-old trade unionist in the textile hub of Prato, noted their recent successes in improving conditions for workers following strikes. 'The big unions and left-wing parties have abandoned their role,' she said. — AFP
Japan Times
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Italy's citizenship referendum flop bolsters Meloni
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni snubbed a referendum on easing citizenship laws but has emerged stronger from the vote as the leftist opposition failed to mobilize mass opposition to her right-wing government after nearly three years in power. A coalition of political parties, unions and civil society groups had promoted the five-question referendum. The proposals included halving the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalization to five years from 10 as well as strengthening job protection rules. The "Yes" vote prevailed but only around 30% of eligible voters cast their ballots, far fewer than the required 50% plus one of the electorate needed for the referendum to be valid, meaning Meloni can ignore the results. Key government ministers had encouraged their supporters to boycott the referendum while the opposition had hoped that a strong turnout could help build momentum in favor of political change and challenge Meloni's domination of Italian politics. "It has been a big defeat for the left, that strengthens the government," said Antonio Tajani, the deputy prime minister and leader of Forza Italia party, one of the coalition parties. Meloni, who took office in October 2022 as the head of a right-wing coalition, remains popular. A poll from SWG institute on Tuesday put support for her Brothers of Italy party at just above 30%, up from the 26% it won in a 2022 national election, while the main opposition center-left Democratic Party (PD) had 23%. "This was an attempt to deal a blow (to the government) and it seems to me that it has failed. I think there was hope among the promoters of a stronger anti-Meloni mobilisation," said Lorenzo Pregliasco, from YouTrend polling agency. YouTrend figures showed an average 12.9 million electors voted "Yes" on the labor questions — slightly more than those who backed the center-right coalition in 2022 — which the opposition hailed as the first building block of an alternative. Italy's next national election is not due until 2027. Tallies showed differences in voting between the labor-related measures and the question about easing citizenship rules, which was far more contentious given Meloni's hard line against mass migration. More than 85% of those who took part in the two-day vote backed stronger protection for workers but roughly a third opposed speeding up the procedures for gaining citizenship, indicating divisions also among progressive voters on the issue. "There is a part of the more moderate leftwing electorate that does not share the (progressive) parties' positions on migrants. They are not against them, but they want laws that can limit entry and citizenship," said polling expert Antonio Noto. Noto added that the data suggested some of Italy's right-leaning voters had defied calls from their parties' leaders to boycott the referendum and had likely helped boost the "No" vote on citizenship. Pollsters say the wealthy centers of cities including Milan and Turin strongly backed reforming the citizenship rules, while the number decreased in the suburbs, indicating that lower-income voters are more conservative on the issue. The failure of the referendum has dealt a major setback for groups fighting for the integration of migrants. Promoters complained of confusion and overlap with other issues, including the management of migratory flows and illegal arrivals. "The lack of information and misinformation on the citizenship question certainly affected the result, in terms of abstentions and votes against," said Anna Lisa Mandorino, who heads civil rights group Cittadinanzattiva.
