Giorgia Meloni treasures Italy’s families – unless they include same-sex parents | Luisa Rizzitelli

The hard-right leader aims to cement traditional values by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Is this really what Italians want?

The family may be the cultural bedrock of Italian society, but an entirely conservative and patriarchal idea of family is what our current leaders and the country’s most powerful institutions want to promote. Giorgia Meloni’s words are always carefully chosen: “a child needs a mum and a dad”, “there is only one type of family – the one formed by a man and a woman”. Italy’s first female prime minister, who leads a hard-right coalition, likes to invoke the slogan “God, country and family”; she campaigned against what she calls “the LGBT lobby”, describes herself as “a woman, a mother, a Christian” and opposes same-sex marriage. But her statements about parenthood are a deliberate punch in the gut to anyone whose family doesn’t fit her narrow definition.

Meloni rose to power with the support of some political moderates, who hoped that once in the job she would not actually challenge the gains that had been made by rights campaigners in recent years. These hopes were misguided.

Luisa Rizzitelli is the Italy coordinator of One Billion Rising, which campaigns to end violence against women