Meloni’s Balancing Act: Centrist Abroad, Right Wing at Home

New policies on surrogate births and the treatment of asylum seekers, while largely symbolic, are designed to shore up her right-wing flank in Italy, analysts say.

Giorgia Meloni has done much in her two years as Italy’s prime minister to distance herself from her hard-right past, aligning with the Western mainstream on key international issues. But this week, she issued strong reminders of her conservative beliefs.

On Wednesday, the country’s senate broadened an existing ban on surrogacy, making it illegal for Italians to seek surrogate births abroad. That was just a few hours after the Italian Navy took the first migrants to Albania as part of Italy’s new plan to process asylum claims outside the country.

Those policies, touching upon the right’s flagship themes of migration and family values, were powerful, symbolic gestures.

“She doesn’t want to do far-right,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political scientist at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome. “But she needs to offer a sop to her base.”

Mr. D’Alimonte added that Ms. Meloni was “walking a tightrope” by holding positions that made her a credible partner on the international stage while holding onto her right-wing base.

“It’s a balancing act,” he said.

Ms. Meloni has not only moved on from her past, but has gone further, taking steps to distance herself from much of the European far right, casting herself as a bridge between the mainstream center and nationalist parties that are often viewed as unpalatable, such as Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in Hungary.

Despite having expressed support for President Vladimir V. Putin in the past, Ms. Meloni has taken staunchly pro-Ukraine, pro-NATO positions on the Russian invasion, closer to those of President Biden than of former President Donald J. Trump, who would seem to be a more natural ally.

When Mr. Orban this summer founded Patriots for Europe, a coalition of nationalist parties, Ms. Meloni spurned it. At home, she decided not to establish the naval blockade that she had promised while campaigning would stop migrants, and her government just proposed a rigorous budget, keeping a tight rein on spending.

Where she has sought to assert her conservative credentials is on issues that experts say have a lower risk of undermining her reputation abroad.

Ms. Meloni has sought to reinforce those credentials with largely symbolic actions, like flouting political correctness. In a language with both a feminine and a masculine word for president, she prefers to use the masculine one. She also refers to Italy in nationalist terms, like “homeland.”

She emphasizes that having a “father and a mother” is what is best for children, and her government has taken steps to make it harder for same-sex couples to be recognized as parents.

She promised not to overturn Italy’s abortion law, which allows procedures within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But she tinkered with it, emphasizing abortion “prevention” in legislation and vowing to do whatever she can “to help a woman who thinks abortion is the only way.”

The law criminalizing surrogacy abroad, which will affect a small number of people and is likely to face legal challenges, was a clear step in this direction. By closing off virtually all avenues for gay fathers to have children, the new law was broadly seen as a crackdown on L.G.B.T. families — another move likely to please her right-wing base.

While supporters of Ms. Meloni’s party largely support the measure, it is also backed by some feminists who are concerned about the potential exploitation of women, and Roman Catholics, making it much less divisive than it might be in other countries.

“This is the strength of this law from an electoral perspective,” said Christian Rocca, editor of the Italian news website Linkiesta.it. “To make a bombastic declaration that has very little real effect.”

The law has been a blow to parents who made use of surrogacy or intended to seek surrogate births abroad. And some have criticized it as homophobic, with children already born from surrogacy abroad who would now be seen by some as the product of a crime.

But experts said these families represented a relatively small pocket of voters.

“It’s dog-whistle politics,” said Mr. Rocca.

Human rights groups say much the same is true of the new migrant policy of sending asylum seekers rescued in the Mediterranean to Albania.

The model resembles a previous attempt by the conservative government in Britain to send asylum seekers apprehended crossing the English Channel to Rwanda, and is part of the Italian government’s multifaceted efforts to stop illegal immigration.

The plan has been criticized by the political left, human rights groups and bishops from the Vatican’s migration foundation, whose president chastised Italy for “jailing” migrants abroad.

But at a moment when the European mainstream is shifting right on migration issues, Ms. Meloni’s plan has gained praise from Brussels. On Monday, the center-right president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the deal could serve as a model for dealing with migrants.

“Meloni is looking for a middle ground,” said Claudio Cerasa, the editor of the Italian daily Il Foglio. “Between Orban and the bishops.”

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