Of course 2022 is not 1922....nevertheless Meloni was already at 15 years a convinced member of the neo fascist MSI. For me fascist is not an easy label (for everything on the right spectrum), but a real ideology that underwent changes of course but is still present....
And the complain about the left wing controlled media (we hear that in the Netherlands too) is complete nonsense. See the TV stations of Mediaset from Berlusconi. You can watch those stations-as much Italians do obviously- without being confronted with other media. Besides that youngsters don't watch TV stations any longer and on the net there are lots of channels unto the most obscure.
The real trouble I have with authoritarianism (either right-which is incredible stronger than the left wing variant nowadays), in the Putin, Orban, or Meloni variant is that they are in essence anti-plurality and anti-democratic.
And the thing is not Eurocrat bashing but the European front against types as Putin, until recent large parts of extreme right were in the pocket of Putin, even funded by him.
@Northener,
I don't think it's appropriate to test the democratic information level starting from private TVs (where, by the way, it would also be legitimate for the 'owner' to impose his own political line, the money is his and he does what he wants with it. Berlusconi, moreover, is a case in point, given that his editorial offices are full of left-wing signatures, from Enrico Mentana in the past to Barbara Palombelli in recent years).
The litmus test of the democratic information system is the public TV, which is subsidised by a compulsory fee from the citizens, so these broadcasters should be representative of everyone. But italian RAI as a whole cannot be called right-wing. One of its three main historical channels, RAI 3 is known by the nickname TeleKabul, so blatant and Taliban-like is its left-wing partisanship. It is a pity that it is also paid by those who perhaps think differently, so it is to be welcomed if there are channels like Berlusconi's to partly rebalance the situation (these are generalist television channels for which I personally am not crazy, but at least they are free. I say "partly rebalanced" situation, because there is also a private channel, LA7, backing up the left-wing broadcasters, so - to put it correctly - Berlusconi is in an inferior situation anyway). Btw: may I know which sources in the Netherlands paint such an anti-democratic situation on the right in Italy?
For now, the only effective authoritarianism I see applied by those who profess to be champions of justice and freedom: the left wing and Europe.
The former in Italy has been so pervasive that it has prevented the emergence of 'right-wingers' other than those of the MSI mould. Parties and groups of a vaguely 'liberal' right have been evanescent phenomena here. There has certainly been an original sin on the right, but in many ways the political history of republican Italy sees an evolution of the left that progressively engulfs other groupings until it becomes the current PD. After all, anything heterodox or not in line with the left automatically became and still becomes fascist. Not bad for someone who claims to defend pluralism. So we now have a stagnant swamp that preserves communist, ex-communist, socialist, Christian Democrat relics, but this marsh in turn needs another relic like the social right to oppose it and legitimise itself in an anti-fascist key. This is the enchanted record of the politicians of the last 70-80 years of history, other proposals or ideas are not forthcoming. Political appeasement has never been sought or really wanted, indeed I would say that the lack of appeasement has been functional to the survival of a certain left wing that now finds itself short of ideas in the face of problems bigger than itself. He who is the cause of his own ill, let him weep for himself.
As for a discourse on the European Union, I feel like shooting on the Red Cross. Another obscene bandwagon that has managed to concentrate the worst politics of the Old World, which when necessary is fugitive, while when it shows signs of existence it produces more harm than good (and those few benefits are for the use and consumption of a very small group of countries). Now the time has come to chastise Orban, who until proven otherwise was democratically elected at home, but is disliked by Europe's central chancelleries. I don't believe that the real motives lie in the state takeover of television stations or in the obligation to auscultate the heartbeat of the foetus for women contemplating abortion. These are fig leaves, pretexts: the EU overlooks far more messy issues (have you heard anything about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan?).
Instead, I believe more concretely in a revenge towards a country that in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has regulated itself differently and has not wanted to adhere uncritically to the anti-Russian sanctions that are instead strangling other European economies. In essence, Orban has made the European bureaucrats look like shit, he has set a dangerous precedent in the central power apparatus in Brussels (right or wrong, Orban's was an alternative course of action that has not even been considered elsewhere, looking after the Hungarian interests), and now the European Soviet with its one-for-one 'pluralism' needs to level out or even eliminate this anomaly as soon as possible.
Excuse me, but I see very little freedom in this whole business.
And on the illicit funds received by the superpowers, let there be clarity. But let's also have a good talk with the Italian PCI, or their PD heirs, who demonstrated good practice in the 1970s. Rubles didn't suck so much then...
Nevertheless I don't experience that with my Italian neighbor and also not with Jovialis....exceptions to the rule 
