Last week on the same day we witnessed two major political moves in Britain and Italy; The former lost her third prime minister, making her tenure the shortest in Britain; The latter had Giorgia Meloni sworn in as Prime Minister, becoming the first woman to serve in that position.
I confess that when Liz Truss appeared on the British political horizon with her long list of about-faces, I thought she would possess the flexibility that the country’s oligarchic political system demands. In your undergraduate political science course you will be taught that in 1215 Magna Carta established basic democratic values in the UK; However, you later learn from your daily political news in the Times newspaper that it is not the consent of the electorate that installs the prime minister, but a clique of backbenchers in both political parties. In the Conservative Party it is usually the committee called “1922” (because it was founded in 1922 in its last incarnation but has survived in various forms and guises over the centuries); The Labor Party has its leader elected by a special leadership conference where a third of the votes are allocated to members of the party in Parliament who are known to be guided by the party whips!
At the present time!
No wonder a Guardian reader, Mr Simon Carbery of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, wrote in his letter to the editor calling for democratic rules for the election of his country’s prime minister: “Let’s start with this: there must be a new political leader in government just with Consent of the voters to be installed after an election of the entire population. We are 800 years overdue for some basic policies to be enshrined in the Constitution.” Bravo Mr. Carbery; You must be Guardian’s editor.
Notorious Artist of U-Turns
In accordance with the current oligarchic system, Prime Minister Truss resigned 44 days after taking office and bowed to the party oligarchs, who in turn bowed to the demands of global capitalist imperialism, the so-called “financial markets”. Just a day before her resignation, she had vowed to remain in power, saying she was “a fighter, not a slacker”. But “the party” first got Truss to sack her chief financial officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, claiming that the economic package drafted by her minister spooked financial markets and sparked an economic and political crisis. She didn’t have the stamina to say to Graham Brady, a senior Conservative lawmaker who oversees leadership challenges: to hum. Kwarteng’s plan would save £45 billion ($50 billion) in unfunded tax cuts that would otherwise help people protect themselves from the catastrophic effects of the pandemic. At Kwarteng, she felt that Britain should not follow the example of the United States. But no! The chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham, went to 10 Downing Street and urged Truss to start packing, as their economic program had caused turmoil in the financial markets. it had hammered the pound’s worth. As a result, the Bank of England (BoE) had to step in to prevent the crisis from spreading to the wider economy and putting pension funds at risk.
The notorious underground artist turns her entire personal and political life away – was liberal-democratic at a young age but later turned conservative; supporting the idea of abolishing the monarchy, later defending it; defending European Union membership but becoming pro-Brexit – Truss could, for once in her life, stick with her economic programs, like changes to corporate tax and the length of time the government will help people with their energy bills. Who knows, this time she might scare the party bosses instead of being scared by them. After all, becoming an “Iron Lady” isn’t easy as it may seem from the outside; is it, liz?
Truss’s political indulgences made her the UK’s shortest-serving Prime Minister ever. Her downfall was hastened by her willingness to change what other people want. The Big Boys didn’t like Liz, accused her of turning Britain into Britaly and kicked her to the curb! They even called it “a salad.”
Rise of Meloni in Italy
On that same fateful day in October, down in the ‘boot of Europe’, Meloni took over the helm of her country and became Italy’s first female prime minister. When her nationalist Brothers of Italy party was swept to victory in an election last month, Ursula von der Leyen, a German politician who has served as President of the European Commission since 2019, ventured a not-so-veiled warning to Meloni, saying there would be consequences would exist should Italy deviate from democratic principles. In a nod to the President of the European Commission, the European media were quick to label Meloni as “Mussolini’s successor”. Famous European newspapers published comments about Meloni’s “suspicious background” as a youth attending “fascist group youth camps”.
The point that von der Leyen and those mouthpieces of Brussels bureaucrats have missed is that Meloni is not only Italy’s first female prime minister, but also the first popularly elected prime minister since 2008. All these years they have been Italian prime ministers in the back rooms charged with negotiations with EU bureaucrats. These EU leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, had appointed whoever they wanted to be Italy’s prime minister. The last so-called national unitary administration was headed by the former head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi; Before him, the Italian lawyer Giuseppe Conte was brought out of the political obscurity by the “Eureakrats”. Paolo Gentiloni Silveri was an Italian politician who was serving as EU Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission when he was appointed Prime Minister of Italy. The list goes all the way back to Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and politician who was actually elected prime minister of the country.
It tells us that the reason Brussels and its puppets attacked Meloni has nothing to do with their policies, but simply the opportunity that the EU would miss by governing Italy through its proxies in Rome. This point has been made by several leaders. Polish President Andrzej Duda accused von der Leyen of extreme arrogance because of her speeches. Von der Leyen had to backtrack; and the media pointed out that Meloni was not a fascist, not even an ultranationalist; She simply promoted policies that would curb undocumented and illegal immigration to Italy. Perhaps their fiery speeches were a bit too loud for non-Mediterraneans.
Now, as Truss resigns, Meloni makes an appearance. Italians love meloni; The British could have loved Liz if party bosses had allowed her to implement their policies. Meloni is determined to implement her nationalist program even if EU leaders dislike her.
But as the Doppelhandel duo sings, “You can’t force love. This is out of your control. It goes where it flows.”
