Giorgia Meloni's Culture Wars Keep Debt Off the Front Page

There’s no statute of limitations in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s culture wars. Christian Greco, a 48-year old Egyptologist in Turin, is the latest victim, denounced for a five-year old transgression. The offense? He offered a two-for-one entry for Arabic speakers to the Museum of Ancient Egypt, where he has been director since 2014. With his contract up for renewal, longtime local antagonists revived the complaint, earning the premier’s opprobrium. She decried him as “ideological and racist towards Italians,” and her local allies called for his ouster.

The brouhaha shows how Meloni is making good on her campaign promise to defend “God, nation and family.” Youth raves, LGBTQ+ rights, migrants, TV hosts and musicians have all been vilified in one way or another by the nation’s most right-wing, xenophobic government since Benito Mussolini.