Populism, populists, european democracies and European Union. The Italian case

In this chapter, the author starts by a necessary clarification of some notions as populism and fascism because there is a lot of confusion in the public debate but also a lot of academic controversies. The debate has been immediately re-launched in September 2022, after the victory at the general elections of Giorgia Meloni’s head of Brothers of Italy, a party who has a neo-fascist legacy, and after her nomination as chief of the Italian government. Marc Lazar concludes this first part of the chapter by giving what he calls an operative definition of populism, populist and fascism. In a second part, the author analyses Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy and proposes a characterisation of this party which is evolving. In a third part of the chapter, Marc Lazar reflects on what does Meloni and her party on Italian democracy and on the European Union but also what the Italian democracy and the European Union do to Meloni and Brothers of Italy. For the author, the Italian democracy and the European Union demonstrate a high capacity of resilience to the populist challenge and a propension of acculturation of the populists’ leader and party. He concludes pointing out that is a working progress, the end of which is unknown.