EU Conservatives Court Italian Fascists

Italy’s neofascist Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party has long been shunned by Europe’s mainstream conservatives. But after party leader Giorgia Meloni won the Italian election last September, this is now changing. Leader of the European People’s Party (epp) Manfred Weber advocates “rapprochement with the Italian post-fascists,” Spiegel Online wrote on January 19.

Revealing meetings: Since Meloni’s inauguration, Weber has already met twice with the new Italian prime minister: November 5 and January 5. According to Spiegel Online, photos showed the two “smil[ing] warmly at each other.” EU parliamentarians “wonder why their chairman is courting a party that follows in the footsteps of the neofascist movements of the postwar period,” Spiegel wrote. “Behind his courtship, there is obviously more than just the desire to stay in the conversation. He is interested in closer cooperation, and in the end possibly even in the admission of the ‘Fratelli’ to the epp.”

The epp represents center-right parties in the European Parliament—but it needs partners in the parliament to achieve its goals. Internal division and friction with the Social Democrats have recently weakened it.

Prophecy says: Meloni and Weber both claim to be proponents of Christianity. The Bible reveals that European leaders will unite on the basis of religion (Revelation 17). The Catholic Church united Europe in the past, and it’s prophesied to do so once more.

The Bible specifically warns us to expect a return of the same empire that Hitler and Mussolini led, with the same relationship with the Catholic Church.
—Gerald Flurry, Trumpet editor in chief (“Fascism Reawakens in Italy”)