vinegarIn the dark, cramped dining room of their home in Tor Bella Monaca, a densely populated suburb of Rome, Giovanna, 70, has just returned from one of the several cleaning jobs she does to support her family. Her husband works part-time on construction sites. Their youngest son, Cristian, 26, lives at home, and the couple might be described as follows: BorgataIt is a Roman dialect insult that roughly translates to mean a poor person living in the socially disadvantaged suburbs of the Italian capital.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, recalling growing up in Garbatella, a traditionally working-class neighborhood with easy access to Rome’s famous monuments, said earlier this month that he was “proud of the city.” Borgata“.
It’s not the first time Meloni has courted those on the margins; the prime minister is banking on the group to boost support for his far-right Brothers of Italy party in this week’s European Parliament elections. Meloni, 47, is running as a strategic move to use his still-high personal popularity to boost his party’s support, but if elected, rules for those who hold ministerial positions mean he would have to immediately resign from his EU seat.
Meloni announced his candidacy in late April, urging supporters to write “Giorgia” on their ballots, adding: “I have always been and always will be one of you. Power cannot change me.”
That won’t be enough to win Giovanna’s vote. She hasn’t decided who she’ll support in the June 6-9 election, but she certainly won’t write “Giorgia.” “Her words are just empty talk to get votes. Meloni has done nothing for the poor,” she said.
Giovanna’s family lives in Tor Bella Monaca, a neighborhood where extreme poverty, drug dealing and shootings, sometimes in broad daylight, have become commonplace since large grey high-rises were built in the 1980s.
Political visits are rare; the only time Ms. Meloni is known to have held a rally here was in 2016, when she organized an event to transform one of the squares into an ideal Italian village, complete with replica Roman towers, food stalls and a children’s play area, to cap off Rome’s mayoral elections. She did not win, but the general disillusionment with politics that followed over the next few years provided fertile ground for Brothers of Italy, who have led the local district council since October 2021 and are set to become the region’s largest party in the 2022 general election.
Meloni promised to crack down on organised crime and bring prosperity to long-poverty stricken areas such as Tor Bella Monaca.
The challenges she faces are enormous. Criminal gangs have risen to power, feeding on economic hardship. More than 40 percent of families in the region live in absolute poverty, six times the national average. Many are forced to work for miserable wages, exploited by some of the companies that support Meloni’s government. The region has one of the highest dropout rates in the Italian capital and a high rate of juvenile detention. Tor Bella Monaca was also one of the Rome districts with the highest number of recipients of the Citizen’s Income poverty relief scheme, but last year Meloni’s government abolished it because the recipients were able to work.
This measure will be replaced by a “blanket allowance” and the European Commission I said last month The scheme will increase absolute poverty because of strict limits on applications. The benefit will be valid for up to 12 months, during which time recipients must take a training course. “There are many vulnerable individuals and families who find themselves ineligible,” said Chiara Saraceno, a sociologist who served on a commission appointed by former Prime Minister Mario Draghi to look into their incomes. “Those who qualify will struggle to find training courses. And this government does not have a real job creation policy. So people are confused. This measure will push many people into poverty.”
Previous national incomes have helped alleviate poverty somewhat, with 1.3 million households set to rise above the poverty line between 2020 and 2022, according to data from the national statistics agency Istat.
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Alessia Pesaresi, who works for the charity Sant’Egidio in Tor Bella Monaca, has seen an increase in families turning to food banks since the measure ended last August. “This was a little extra income for people who were struggling to make ends meet,” she says. “Of course, some people took advantage of the system, but many poor people ended up being penalized.”
Despite the numerous problems, Meloni and her fellow Italians, who are projected to win around 27% of the vote in the European Parliament elections, remain strongly supported due to her tough rhetoric on crime and illegal immigration and the strength of a weak opposition.
“I have to say that the police presence is stronger, they have evicted many criminal families and are stepping up their crackdown,” said Tiziana Ronzio, who has received death threats because of her work as president of Torpiubella, a civil society group working to improve life in Tor Bella Monaca.
Alessandra Laterza, owner of Le Torri bookstore, which was under police protection until last September after apparently receiving death threats from right-wing extremists for refusing to sell Meloni’s books, disagrees: “There has been no real change. If anything, I think it’s a step backwards in terms of helping families in need. We mustn’t forget that the 2022 elections saw a low voter turnout in the area and I expect the same thing this week.”
After years of living in a shabby home, Giovanna’s family will soon move to a new one as part of a housing regeneration project approved by Draghi’s government and funded by the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund. But the family’s greatest hope is Cristian, one of the few young people from the area to have defied the odds and graduated from university. “I’m the real underdog,” he says. “The Meloni government is showing off but actually achieving nothing.”
