Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Sunak offers Italy’s ‘post-fascists’ the spirit of Thatcher
In a fawning speech to Giorgia Meloni that evoked the Iron Lady, Britain’s PM has indicated that immigration will be the hill the Tories die on, if only to shore up their dwindling core, writes NICK WRIGHT

A NEW deification of Margaret Thatcher is well under way.
 
Following on from Keir Starmer’s adoration of the woman who he claims renewed Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has now compared Italy’s “post-fascist” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the Iron Lady.

Sunak chose the annual Atreju festival of Azioni Giovani, the youth organisation of Meloni’s governing Fratelli d’Italia party to laud Thatcher’s “radicalism on illegal immigration.”

It is often difficult to discern the core beliefs of the very rich when they take to electoral politics, if only because they have much to lose if the layers of mystification which obscure the connections between wealth and power — necessary adjuncts to bourgeois rule — are revealed.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Enrico Berlinguer (left), who was leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1972 to 1984 and (right) French communist leader Fabien Roussel
Eyes Wright / 30 July 2026
30 July 2026

While Italy’s communist tradition remains fragmented and politically marginal, France’s party is attempting to re-establish itself as an independent force rooted in working-class organisation, says NICK WRIGHT

US President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands as they pose for a photo at the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit in Egypt, October 13, 2025
Eyes Wright / 16 July 2026
16 July 2026

NICK WRIGHT continues his series analysing the trends in European politics

IN YOUTH WE TRUST: Supporters of the
Features / 26 March 2026
26 March 2026

Italians reject controversial judiciary reforms in a referendum that boosts the left, reports NICK WRIGHT

RIGHT ANGER, WRONG ANSWER: Faversham’s small anti-migrant demo assembles, Sunday October 5 2025
Features / 9 October 2025
9 October 2025

Once again, our broad-based coalition outnumbered the anti-migrant protest in Faversham, but tackling the sentiment behind this wave of anger requires explaining the real reasons pushing millions into leaving their homelands, argues NICK WRIGHT