Giorgia Meloni and the post-truth society

Europe.It analyses the most important political developments and events of the previous year, helping to make sense of them in terms of general political-science categories and in terms of similar developments and events at other times, in other places.It therefore performs a valuable service both to students of Italian contemporary history and to students of comparative politics looking for authoritative description and analysis of the Italian case.Politica in Italia was first published in 1986, making this year's edition, as the fortieth, something of a milestone and we are very grateful to the edition's editors, Martin Bull and Laura Polverari, and to their contributors for producing another splendid edition, one that rises fully to the occasion of the anniversary it marks.As the editors note in their introduction, 2024 was a year of multiple challenges for the Government, including the challenge of large-scale reform; the alarming rise in the number of femicides; divisions between the governing parties over the re-election of EU Commission President, Ursula von der Lyen; the management of military support for Ukraine; its handling of protests and demonstrations.Significant among these in 2024 were the student encampments, occupations, sit-ins and other forms of contestation arising from developments in the Middle East.These were challenging for the Government because of the scale of the protests; the methods used (highly confrontational in some instances), and perceptions of police reactions in a number of cases. 1 Meanwhile, the highly emotive nature of the underlying issue seemed to be associated with a constant risk -as when South Africa accused the Israeli government of genocide or the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence -that international events might further inflame opinion.There was therefore a risk of deepening divisions, and thus the risk that the Government might find navigating a path between its international commitments, and internal dissent, increasingly difficult to manage.From time to time passions were aroused by words and actions government critics interpreted as indicative of authoritarian tendencies in response to the demonstrations.For example, Partito Democratico (Democratic Party, PD) leader, Elly Schlein, in February 2024, spoke of '"unacceptable" scenes of "students trapped in an alleyway, charged and beaten by the police"'. 2Shortly thereafter, Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, made reference to a '"climate of growing aggression toward law enforcement" in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, with the apparent aim to provoke a police reaction' (Barry 2024).In November