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ROME, ITALY - 18 OCTOBER 2022: Maurizio Manzetti (61), a cook and Giorgia Meloni fan, poses for a portrait in his restaurant “The Legend” in Ostia, the seaside neighborhood of Rome, Italy, on October 18th 2022.
Two years ago, vandals targeted Maurizio Manzetti, a cook in the seaside Roman neighborhood of Ostia, whose restaurant decor includes Italian flags and photographs of Ms. Meloni. They spray-painted “Friend of Giorgia, fascist” on a wall in front of the eatery and left a bottle that looked like a molotov cocktail in front of his door. “As soon as you talked about patriotism, sovreignism and borders they called you a fascist,” said Mr. Manzetti. “Now the word patriot is not going to be canceled anymore.”
Giorgia Meloni said her victory would be a “payback for so many people who in this nation had to lower her head for decades,” but also “for all the people who saw it differently from the mainstream and the dominant power system.” They were, she said, “treated as the children of a lesser God.” As Italy debates why Ms. Meloni did so well in the elections — if it had to do more with Italy’s voracious appetite for something new or a shift to the right — her victory clearly provided a vindication to right wing loyalists who for years endured marginalization.
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- ©2022 Gianni Cipriano
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