La very conservative Giorgia Meloni is devoted to the Lord of the Rings, the saga of J. RR Tolkien, with its elves, hobbits, magicians, dwarves, orcs and humans. We imagined her obsessed with an Italian writer, she quotes the British author of one of the bestsellers of the XXe century, the model of the genre heroic fantasy, which we devour during adolescence. Above all, she made this private passion a bedrock of her public life. And his victory.
In his autobiography, Io Sono Giorgia. The mie radici, the mie idee (Rizzoli, 2021), or “I am Giorgia. My roots, my ideas” (My route, to be published by Chora, 392 pages, 19.90 euros), the 45-year-old Italian who should soon govern the country scripts her visceral attachment to Tolkien’s trilogy. She made this influence clear to New York TimesSeptember 21.
We learn that the leader of Fratelli d’Italia (“Brothers of Italy”) discovered at the age of 11 this river story where modest hobbits save Middle-earth by destroying the evil lord Sauron, who made rings of power dependent on him – including an evil one. At 15, an activist in the neofascist party MSI, she and her comrades dress up as heroes of the book, meet to the sound of the horn, taste the identity music of the group Compagnia dell’Anello (“Company of the ring”), including a neofascist anthem, tomorrow belongs to us.
antidote to power
As an adult, she does not reduce the pace. In 2008, Minister of Youth in a Berlusconi government, she poses with a figurine of the wizard Gandalf (a nice guy in Tolkien). At the beginning of September, during her election campaign, she regrets not being able to watch on Amazon Prime The rings of powera series taken from the saga.
She regularly quotes Tolkien on Facebook: “Unfaithful is he who says goodbye when the road darkens. » She repeats that young party members must read it. During his last meeting before the election, on September 23 in Rome, the actor Pino Insegno presents it, quoting the British writer.
After the victory, his sister Arianna Meloni publishes a long post on Facebook riddled with references to Tolkien, even seeing in the writer ” compass “ of a future policy aimed at “eradicate diseased fields in order to leave healthy land to cultivate for those who will come next”.
For the future President of the Board, The Lord of the Rings is indeed not just a beloved novel but a program. “Tolkien could define the values of the conservative camp better than we do”she told the New York Times. Her favorite character, the hobbit Sam Gamegie, is not really a bodybuilder, but he is a manifesto and an antidote to power, which she considers corrupt by nature: small in size, a gardener by trade, shy in character, nice and good natured, not pushy for two pennies. But he helps save Middle-earth.
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“For Giorgia Meloni, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is not just a beloved novel but a program”