On Monday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson reacted to Giorgia Meloni’s Italian election win earlier in the week.
Meloni’s win has been panned by the media, who have claimed it rivals that of 20th-century Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Carlson suggested the Italian election outcome was a rejection of so-called woke ideology, and he compared what happened in Italy to what was happening in U.S. domestic politics.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Not a lot of Americans pay attention to European politics unless they’re very bored or work at some think tank and that’s understandable, but it’s a shame, really, because if you look closely what’s happening in Europe, you can learn a lot about what’s happening here.
Despite the castles and the funny accents and the smelly cheese, Europe is not actually that different from the United States, at least in this way. European leaders run their countries pretty much the same way our leaders run our country. They yammer on endlessly about democracy, but then at the same time, they do their best to avoid democracy’s most basic requirements like free speech and representative government.
A few years ago, the Prime Minister of Italy at the time, Paolo Gentiloni, bragged to the World Economic Forum about his plans to “bring more social justice to the country” by which he meant importing many more thousands of poorly-educated economic migrants from the Third World into Italy. “We are very open on migration,” he said. “We are saving lives at sea.”
Oh, saving lives, huh? Congratulations. You’re such a good person. But the question is, and it’s a relevant question in a democracy, what of the people who live in Italy, that would be your constituents, think of that idea?
Well, as the Prime Minister explained, he didn’t care. “A demand for more democracy not only is wrong, it’s even dangerous.” You following this? You run a country in the name of the people. You’re not a king, you’re a democratically-elected leader. You run it in the name of the people who live there, but at the same time, it’s “dangerous” to let the opinions of those people influence your decisions. Does that sound familiar? Oh, it does, because it’s exactly the kind of democracy that we live in, which is to say a fake one.
In fact, there is no majority in any country on Planet Earth that thinks open borders are a good idea or that considers global warming the single biggest problem, or that thinks it’s wise to quarantine the entire population because of a flu virus.
No large group of people anywhere wants these things. But in the West, everybody gets them anyway because politicians don’t care what you think. Your opinion is dangerous. “Shut up, racist.”
So, it goes without saying this can’t last. A system like this cannot endure forever because it’s inherently unstable. You can’t tell people they’re in charge of their own government (It’s a democracy, we promise) and then ignore over decades their most strongly held opinions on things that matter. That doesn’t work long term. They will rebel, guaranteed; and the best you can hope for is that they will do it peacefully.
In Italy, they seem to be doing just that. This summer, a conservative populist called Giorgia Meloni started showing up with strong support in the polls. Meloni was no radical. Her views would have seemed perfectly ordinary just a decade ago, but because she resolutely refused to bow to the twin gods of climate and mass migration, people panicked. The President of the European Commission, in fact on camera, commanded Italians not to vote for her. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: So, we’ll see if things go in a difficult direction. I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland. We have tools. If things go in the right direction and people, as a body, that is always, where always governments have to be accountable to play an important role.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, if “things go in the wrong direction.” In other words, if voters disobey “we have tools.” Oh, you do, do you? Well, that sounds like a threat, because of course it is a threat, but it turns out Italians are so desperate, they no longer care. They’re not afraid, and they’re not afraid because neo liberalism, which that lady is just espousing, has destroyed their country.
Energy prices in some places in Italy are now up more than 400 percent over last year. Why? Well, a pointless war on Ukraine and self-destructive climate policies. It’s not an accident and everyone knows it.
Meanwhile, parts of Italy are becoming flat out dangerous. That hasn’t happened before outside of Sicily, but it’s happening now. Why? Everyone knows why, and government statistics show why. It’s migrants who are driving much of the crime, a huge amount of the crime.
So, these aren’t mysteries, but you’re not allowed to acknowledge them in public, period. In some places, it’s illegal. But Meloni is one of the very few politicians who doesn’t care and has been willing to say the obvious, the truth, out loud and as a result of that, because she has been willing to say what everybody actually knows, last night, her party called Brothers of Italy, won an overwhelming victory in Italy. They took both majorities in the Houses of Parliament.
By Italian standards, in fact by American standards, this is a revolution, but unlike most revolutions, the person at the front of it can actually explain what she is about. She can articulate it in a way people understand. She’s smart. This is part of the speech she gave earlier this year that led to last night’s results. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIORGIA MELONI, BROTHERS OF ITALY PARTY: Everything we stand for is under attack. Our individual freedom is under attack. Our rights are under attack.
The sovereignty of our nation is under attack. The prosperity and well- being of our families are under attack. The education of our children is under attack.
In front of this, people understand that in this age, the only way of being rebels is to preserve what we are. The only way of being rebels is to be conservative.
They will try to take everything away from us, but they cannot take away who we are. And you know what? Cherishing who we are, knowing what we stand for is all we need to face this challenge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: She is not kidding. She’s as serious as the moment we are currently living through. “Our rights are under attack,” she said, “The sovereignty of our nation is under attack” and critically “the prosperity and well-being of our families is under attack” and that’s true. That’s why it’s resonant, because it’s real and not just in Italy. It’s true here. American families are facing the very same onslaught from the very same poisonous ideologies.
The difference is that in this country, it’s rarely acknowledged except on the fringes. Meloni is not on the fringes, she is the new Prime Minister of Italy, she will be and she is saying it out loud.
Contrast that to what’s happening in the United States.
House Republicans just spelled out what they’re running on. It’s a document called “The Commitment to America.” It’s fine. Probably not much in it, you disagree with it. Have you heard of it? No, you probably haven’t. You probably haven’t read it. Nobody really cares. Why? Because there’s nothing real in it. There’s not a single word in that document about the attacks on the American family that you see every day. That’s at the center of most people’s concerns. How are my kids? Will they have a life that resembles mine?
That was called the American Dream. Does it still exist? Will they be able to afford to live the way they grew up? Will they have the opportunities that we had? No.
People are upset about that. Why wouldn’t they be? But nobody says it and that’s odd because we know and now it’s been proven that when politicians are brave enough to tell the truth about what’s actually happening, they tend to be rewarded for it.
Once again, here’s the incoming Prime Minister of Italy and as you watch this, ask yourself if you would vote for a candidate like this if you had the chance in our country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GIORGIA MELONI speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening? There is a single answer to all these questions. Because it defines us. Because it is our identity. Because everything that defines us is now an enemy for those who like us to no longer have an identity, and to simply be perfect consumer slaves.
Chesterton wrote, more than a century ago — let’s see if I can find it — “Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in the summer. That time has arrived. We are ready.” Thank you
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So that’s the person is being described all over American television, including on channels they should know better as “far right.” That’s far right, really? Because she acknowledges that American families are under attack. Of course, they are. You think it’s accidental? No, and she explains why and it’s simple.
If you want to establish totalitarian control over a country, of course you have to destroy the family first, because nobody with deep family loyalty, the one thing every person should have, no one who has that will ever pledge absolute obedience to a politician. Why would you?
So, if you want absolute obedience, you have to sever family ties and that’s why State schools brainwash your children with values that you despise and then instruct your children to turn you in as a thought criminal if you object. That’s happening. It’s not your imagination and it’s happening for a reason.
Wokeness is not just a political ideology. It’s not just something annoying that emerged from college campuses that we can ignore. It’s a state religion that supplants actual religion, which is also being destroyed. There’s a reason the strip bars and the liquor stores and the weed dispensary stayed open under COVID, but the churches didn’t.
If you can’t draw the connection between those dots, you’re missing it, but Meloni didn’t miss it. She understands it perfectly. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELONI: Only a few months ago, European Union bureaucrats brought a document, hundreds of pages long, telling us that in order to be inclusive, we had to exclude all references to Christmas — Jesus, Mary, and all Christian names were to be removed from all official communication — will we surrender in front of this? No, we will not. We will fight it. We will find it standing tall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So, they hate your family, they hate your religion, and you don’t actually have to put up with it because it’s a democracy, and you’re supposed to be in charge, you being the population. That’s a radical message? God, family, country. That’s not radical. It’s hard to imagine a more wholesome message, a more pro-human platform.
Fascists don’t believe in God because God is a rival to their power. Of course. This is a person publicly professing faith in God. That’s so scary, but it is so scary. It’s so scary to the people running and benefiting from our current system and why is that?
She’s not the first person to say this. People have said it before, but she has just been rewarded for saying it. That’s the point. The population likes it. This is what they actually want. They’re not that worried about global warming. They don’t want open borders. They think the woke stuff is absurd. They want to say what they think.
And now, it’s obvious, because she just won and so even in this country, the people running and benefiting from a deeply corrupt and doomed system are hysterical. Watch the reaction to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEDHI HASAN, MSNBC HOST: I want to start today by talking about a politician on the right we should all be worried about, who is on the rise today, a politician who has brushed off accusations of fascism.
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: What separates us from, let’s say, Italy, who elected a fascist.
EDWARD LUCE, “FINANCIAL TIMES”: She is from fascist roots.
ABC ANCHOR: A very far right political party whose roots go back to post World War II neo fascist.
DAVID IGNATIUS, MSNBC: A party that has its roots in Italian fascism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “Its roots in Italian fascism.” Define that for us, if you would, Joe Scarborough? Oh, I’m sorry. You’re an idiot. You can’t.
But the point is, fascist means unacceptable. Whatever this chick is saying, you’re not allowed to agree with. They’re very worried that that many Italians do agree with it. So, she has to be completely unacceptable.
Don’t read further. She’s a fascist, and in case you missed the theme, a recent “New York Times” piece on Meloni mentioned fascism or fascist 29 times, not a subtle newspaper. Apparently, she’s on the verge of invading Poland. We should be worried. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS LIVESAY, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: They said it could never happen again. One hundred years ago, Mussolini marched into Rome, plunging the country into two decades of dictatorship in an alliance with Hitler and a second World War.
Today, the fascist party is gone, but many say these are their political heirs — The Brothers of Italy, once on the fringes, they’ve ballooned into the biggest party in the country. Now their leader, Giorgia Meloni is poised to have the most hard-right government since El Duce.
The 45 year old firebrand insists she is no fascist, just a proud conservative and nationalist, comfortable nonetheless with some of the hallmarks of Italian fascism like this motto:
(GIORGIA MELONI speaking in foreign language.)
LIVESAY: God, fatherland, and family
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “God, family, country.” Well, that’s pretty scary. Not a word about climate or equity, but again, it’s their hysteria and their total unwillingness to ask obvious questions that lets you in on the secret, which is they’re panicked because they know the current system is doomed and in fact, what happened last night in Italy is the best case scenario for them, because it was a peaceful transfer of power. That’s a good thing. That’s what you want.
In a democracy, people should be allowed to have some influence on the priorities of the government that claims to represent them and when they speak in an election, the people who’ve been repudiated have a moral obligation to pause just for one second and ask, “Why didn’t they like what I was offering them?” They have a right to an opinion. In fact, their opinion is at the center of our system, this democracy, but they never ask themselves that. They never take any blame whatsoever. They didn’t in 2016, when Trump got elected. They immediately blamed Putin or Macedonian bot farms.
They never blamed themselves and so they never learned a single thing from what happened. That’s exactly what’s happening, not simply in American television, but also in Italy and also in the European Union.
The bureaucrats who drove Italians to seek a change peacefully at the ballot box are completely unwilling to learn from that vote. They’ll just keep ramming their unpopular garbage down the throats of a deeply ungrateful nation until there’s an actual rebellion. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor