2 h. ago ‘Giorgia Meloni’s own Woodstock’: Italy’s far right debates at Atreju festival

Week-long event organised by Brothers of Italy party looks like winter wonderland but is chance for PM to flaunt powerWhen, out of curiosity, Leila Cader and her friends entered the gardens surrounding Castel Sant’Angelo, a prominent Rome monument that once served as a refuge for popes during times of war, they thought they’d chanced upon an enchanting winter wonderland.With the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, Santa’s elves wandering around, stalls selling nativity-scene figurines and skaters merrily gliding on an ice-rink, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Continue reading...

Politics

54 h. ago Italy first country to win Unesco recognition for national cuisine

Italian cooking added to ‘intangible cultural heritage’ list after campaign by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right governmentUnesco has officially recognised Italian cooking as a cultural beacon, an endorsement hailed by the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose government has put the country’s food at the heart of its nationalistic expression of identity.The announcement, made on Wednesday during the UN cultural body’s assembly in Delhi, means Italian cuisine – from pasta and mozzarella to wine and tiramisu – will be inscribed on the coveted list of “intangible cultural heritage”. Continue reading...

Politics

56 h. ago Italian cooking and its rituals get UN designation as world heritage

Italian food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and palate-pleasing tastes, but the U.N.’s cultural agency is giving foodies another reason to celebrate their pizza, pasta and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage

Politics

3 d. ago Zelenskyy refuses to cede land to Russia as he rallies European support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country will not cede territory to Russia

Politics

2 w. ago Italy’s parliament delays new law to define sex without consent as rape

Legislation stalls after coalition ally says measure would ‘clog up the courts’ and fuel personal vendettasItaly’s parliament has delayed a debate over a landmark law that would define sex without consent as rape amid a rift within the ruling coalition.The measure, the result of a rare pact between the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her main political opponent, the centre-left leader, Elly Schlein, passed in the lower house last week and had been expected to get final approval in the senate this week. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Italy’s rape law stalls as Matteo Salvini claims it could be used for ‘vendettas’

Parliament delays debate over law defining sex without consent as rape, after comments by far-right deputy PMItaly’s parliament has delayed a debate over a landmark law that would define sex without consent as rape amid a rift within the ruling coalition.The measure, the result of a rare pact between the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her main political opponent, the centre-left leader, Elly Schlein, passed in the lower house last week and had been expected to get final approval in the senate this week. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Italy now recognizes the crime of femicide and punishes it with life in prison

Italy’s parliament has approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison

Events

2 w. ago Giorgia Meloni takes on Italian judges over decision to remove British father's children from 'crumbling ruin' where they live 'off

The family, who gave up the rat race to live a simple life in a woodland cottage found themselves at the heart of a national scandal last week.

Society

2 w. ago Ornella Vanoni death: Beloved Italian singer whose career spanned 70 years dies, aged 91

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that the star had left an ‘unrepeatable artistic heritage’

Events

2 w. ago Beloved Italian singer Ornella Vanoni, whose iconic career spanned 70 years, dies at 91

Ornella Vanoni, a beloved Italian singer with a career spanning seven decades, has died at 91

Events

3 w. ago Rome decries ‘Italian sounding’ pasta sauces on sale in EU parliament store

Agriculture minister calls for immediate investigation over carbonara sauce containing the wrong type of cured meatItaly’s agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, has called for an immediate investigation after coming across what he claimed were jars of “Italian sounding” pasta sauce on the shelves of the European parliament’s supermarket.Lollobrigida, of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, was particularly vexed by a carbonara sauce made with “Italiaanse pancetta” – the classic Roman pasta dish is made with a different cured meat, guanciale – and a tomato sauce containing “oignons de Calabria”, or onions from Calabria. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Europe’s firewall against the far right: in growing need of repair | Editorial

The fragility of France’s cordon sanitaire against Le Pen is part of a worrying wider pattern, as centrist parties seek to revive their fortunesEarlier this autumn, Giorgia Meloni laid out the strategic path to a new era of nationalist populism across Europe. Addressing a gathering of the French far-right party Identité-Libertés, which is led by Marine Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, Italy’s prime minister underlined the need to work towards “the unity of the right and the centre-right” adding “I hope that one day this can also happen in France  but that will depend on you.”Ms Meloni knows of what she speaks. Her Brothers of Italy party, which has a lineage going back to postwar neofascist movements, became hegemonic under her leadership by mounting a reverse takeover of the Italian right. Less than a decade ago, it scored a marginal 4% in a general election. Currently, it stands at 31% in the polls. Forza Italia, the centre-right party founded by Silvio Berlusc...

Events