A lesson from Gianfranco Fini

Who would have expected Gianfranco Fini to emerge as the modernizer of the Italian centre-right by standing against the redneck brand of populism of the Lega Nord and Silvio Berlusconi's monarchical conception of government?

Just 15 years ago Fini described Mussolini as Italy’s greatest statesman. Now he declares that fascism is an absolute evil. Quite a transformation. Once he projected his party as a bastion of Catholic traditions. He might still seek inspiration from St Francis of Assisi and speak about cribs full of illegal immigrants, but he definitely supports more liberal laws on gay unions, assisted procreation and living wills. Unlike Berlusconi, who branded Eluana Englaro’s father a murderer, Fini supported his decision to put an end to her medically assisted life.

And most significantly he broke ranks with with the right’s inward looking nationalism advocating a vigorous patriotism based on citizenship and respect for the constitution. Unlike the redneck right he fully supports the right of immigrants to vote in local elections-a theme which caused so much scandal in Malta on the eve of the MEP election.

In my opinion Fini is no turncoat or opportunist. Had he stayed silent he was well in line for the succession. In the short term he is bound to lose votes. Neither has he converted to left-wing ideals. In reality Fini stands out as left-wing because of the retrograde nature of Italian politics, where the right is associated with Berlusconi’s anti-intellectual and vulgar soundbites and Bossi’s rabid xenophobia.

Fini simply belongs to a new brand of on centre right politicians who have embraced modernity and a model of citizenship based on democratic values, rather than blood or race. His move to the liberal and secular centre mirrors that of David Cameron who has succeeded in neutralizing the Thatcherite wing by entering a coalition with the liberals. The same applies to Angela Merkel who not only governs with the pro-business liberals, whose foreign minister is gay, but is seeking new pastures in Saar and Hamburg with the even more progressive greens.

Fini’s cosmopolitan and sophisticated brand of politics has all the hallmarks of modernity, something which makes it alien to the Maltese context, where both major parties are culturally retrograde and pander in different ways to a redneck or arch-conservative base.

Due to ideological affinity, Fini may well offer a blueprint for a modern Nationalist Party. For the Nationalist party faces a choice; either to take its pro-EU stance to its logical conclusion by becoming socially liberal or to go two steps backwards in consolidating itself as a reactionary conservative party which reacts to rather than invent the future.